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ON  THE  I 
SEABOMi 

BY 

AUGUST 
STRINDBERG 

TRANSLATeDBY 

ELIZABETH  CMSTERCEEH 


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ON  THE  SEABOARD 

A  NOVEL  OF  THE  BALTIC  ISLANDS 


FROM  THE  SWEDISH  OF 

AUGUST  STRINDBERG 

AUTHOR  OF 
EASTER,  LUCKY  PEHR,  ETC. 


"  TRANSLATED  BY 

ELIZABETH  CLARKE  WESTERGREN 


AUTHORIZED  EDITION 


5gl!^S^ 


N  EW    YORK 

GROSSET    &    DUNLAP 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1913 
STEWART  &  KIDD  COMPANY 


All  rights  reserved 

Copyright  in  England 


Sf?LF 


PREFACE 

August  Strindberg's  first  literary  productions 
were  warmly  received,  and  would  have  aroused 
lasting  enthusiasm  and  admiration  had  the  young 
author's  prolific  pen  been  less  aggressive,  In  this, 
for  his  country,  a  totally  new  style  of  novel.  His 
intrepid  sarcasm  which  emanated  from  a  physical 
disability,  known  only  to  a  few  of  his  most  in- 
timate friends,  called  forth  severe  criticism  from 
the  old  aristocrats  and  the  conservative  element, 
which  drove  the  gifted  dramatist  from  his  own 
country  to  new  spheres.  Life's  vicissitudes  at 
Vierwaldstatter  See,  and  Berlin,  also  later  on  at 
Paris  from  whence  his  fame  spread  rapidly  over 
Europe,  changed  his  realism  to  pessimism. 

After  years  of  ceaseless  work,  during  which  he 
dipped  Into  almost  every  branch  of  science,  he 
suddenly  determined  to  transfer  his  activities  to 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  where  he  was  desirous  of 
becoming  known.  For  this  purpose  his  most 
singular  novel  was  chosen  for  translation;  mean- 
time some  invisible  power  drew  him  back  to  his 
birthplace,  Stockholm,  and  a  new  generation 
cheered  his  coming. 


PREFACE 

Later  on  critics  called  him  "  A  demolisher  and 
a  reformer  that  came  like  a  cyclone,  with  his  dar- 
ing thought  and  daring  words,  which  broke  in 
upon  the  everlasting  tenets  and  raised  Swedish 
culture." 

His  delineations  are  photographical  exactness 
without  retouch,  bearing  always  a  strong  reflec- 
tion of  his  personality. 

Magnus  Westergren. 
Boston,  Mass. 

April,  19 13. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD 


CHAPTER  FIRST 

A  FISHING  boat  lay  one  May  evening  to  beam- 
wind,  out  on  Goosestone  bay.  "  Rokarna," 
known  to  all  on  the  coast  by  their  three  pyramids, 
were  changing  to  blue,  while  upon  the  clear  sky 
clouds  were  forming  just  as  the  sun  began  to  sink. 
Already  there  was  dashing  outside  the  points,  and 
a  disagreeable  flapping  in  the  mainsail  signified 
that  the  land-breeze  would  soon  break  against 
newborn  currents  of  air,  from  above,  from  the 
sea  and  from  aft. 

At  the  tiller  sat  the  Custom  House  Surveyor  of 
the  East  Skerries,  a  giant  with  black  long  full 
beard.  Occasionally  he  exchanged  a  look  with 
two  subordinates  who  were  sitting  in  the  bow,  one 
of  whom  was  tending  the  clutch-pole,  keeping  the 
big  square  sail  to  the  wind. 

Sometimes  the  steersman  cast  a  searching  look 
at  the  little  gentleman  who  was  crouching  at  the 
mast  seemingly  afraid  and  frozen,  now  and  then 
drawing  his  shawl  closer  round  his  body. 


a  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

The  surveyor  must  have  found  him  ridiculous, 
for  frequently  he  turned  leeward  with  a  pretense 
of  spitting  tobacco  juice  to  conceal  a  rising  laugh. 

The  little  gentleman  was  dressed  in  a  beaver- 
colored  spring  coat  under  which  a  pair  of  wide 
moss-green  pants  peeped  out,  flaring  at  the  bot- 
tom round  a  pair  of  crocodile  shagreen  shoes 
topped  with  brown  cloth  and  black  buttons. 
Nothing  of  his  under  dress  was  visible,  but  round 
his  neck  was  twisted  a  cream-colored  foulard, 
while  his  hands  were  well  protected  in  a  pair  of 
salmon-colored  three-button  glace-gloves,  and  the 
right  wrist  was  encircled  by  a  gold  bracelet  carved 
in  the  form  of  a  serpent  biting  Its  tail.  Ridges 
upon  the  gloves  showed  that  rings  were  worn  be- 
neath. The  face,  as  much  as  could  be  seen,  was 
thin  and  haggard;  a  small  black  mustache  with 
ends  curled  upwards  increased  the  paleness  and 
gave  it  a  foreign  expression.  The  hat  was  turned 
back,  exposing  a  black  closely  cut  bang  resembling 
a  calotte. 

What  seemed  most  to  attract  the  indefatigable 
attention  of  the  steersman  was  the  bracelet,  mus- 
tache and  bang. 

During  the  long  voyage  from  Dalaro  this  man, 
who  was  a  great  humorist,  had  tried  to  get  up  a 
cheery  conversation  with  the  Fish  Commissioner, 
whom  he  had  In  charge  to  take  to  the  station  at 
the  East  Skerries,  but  the  young  doctor  had  shown 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  3 

an  Injured  unsusceptibllity  to  his  witty  importuni- 
ties which  convinced  the  surveyor  that  the  "  in- 
structor "  was  insolent. 

Meanwhile  the  wind  freshened  as  they  passed 
Hanstone  to  windward  and  the  dangerous  sail  be- 
gan to  flutter.  The  fish  commissioner,  who  had 
been  sitting  with  a  navy  chart  in  his  hand,  noting 
the  answers  to  his  questions,  placed  it  in  his  pocket 
and  turned  toward  the  man  at  the  tiller  saying  in 
a  voice  more  like  a  woman's  than  a  man's: 

"  Please  sail  more  carefully !  " 

"Is  the  instructor  afraid?"  asked  the  helms- 
man scornfully. 

"  Yes,  I  am  careful  of  my  life  and  keep  close 
liold  of  it,"  answered  the  commissioner. 

"  But  not  of  other's  lives?  "  asked  the  helms- 
man. 

"  At  least  not  so  much  as  my  own,"  returned 
the  commissioner,  "  and  sailing  is  a  dangerous  oc- 
cupation, especially  with  a  square  sail." 

"  So,  sir,  you  have  often  sailed  before  with  a 
square  sail?  " 

*'  Never  in  my  life,  but  I  can  see  where  the 
wind  directs  its  power  and  can  reckon  how  much 
resistance  the  weight  of  the  boat  can  make  and 
well  judge  when  the  sail  will  jibe." 

"  Well,  take  the  tiller  yourself  then !  "  snub- 
bingly  remarked  the  surveyor. 

"  No  I  that  is  your  place  1  I  do  not  ride  on  the 


4  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

coachman's  box  when  I  travel  on  the  Crown's 
errands." 

"  Oh,  you  cannot  manage  a  boat,  of  course." 

"  If  I  could  not,  It  is  certainly  easy  to  learn, 
since  every  other  schoolboy  can  do  it  and  every, 
custom  house  subordinate,  therefore  I  need  not  be 
ashamed  that  I  cannot,  only  sail  carefully  now  as 
I  would  not  willingly  have  my  gloves  spoiled  and 
get  wet," 

It  was  an  order,  and  the  surveyor,  who  was 
cock  of  the  walk  at  the  East  Skerries,  felt  himself 
degraded.  After  a  movement  on  the  tiller  the 
sail  filled  and  the  boat  sped  onward  steadily  to- 
wards the  rock,  with  its  white  custom  house 
cottage  brightly  shining  in  the  rays  of  the  setting 
sun. 

The  seaboard  was  vanishing,  there  was  a  feel- 
ing that  all  kindly  protection  was  left  behind, 
when  venturing  out  on  the  open  boundless  water 
with  darkness  threatening  toward  the  east. 
There  was  no  prospect  of  crawling  to  leeward  of 
Islands  or  rocks,  no  possibility  In  case  of  storm  to 
lay  up  to  and  reef,  out  right  Into  the  middle  of 
destruction,  over  the  black  gulf,  out  to  that  little 
rock  that  looks  no  larger  than  a  buoy  cast  into  the 
middle  of  the  sea.  The  fish  commissioner,  as  sig- 
nified before,  held  fast  to  his  only  life  and  was 
intelligent  enough  to  count  his  Insignificant  resist- 
ance against  nature's  superiority.     Now  he   felt 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  ^S' 

depressed.  He  was  too  clear-sighted  with  his 
thirty-six  years  to  overestimate  the  insight  and 
daring  of  the  man  at  the  tiller.  He  did  not  look 
with  reliance  at  his  brown  and  whiskered  visage, 
nor  would  he  believe  that  a  muscular  arm  was 
equal  to  a  wind  which  blew  with  thousands  of 
pounds  pressure  against  a  rocking  sail.  He 
viewed  such  courage  as  founded  upon  faulty  judg- 
ment. What  stupidity,  thought  he,  to  risk  one's 
life  in  a  little  open  boat  when  there  exist  deckers 
and  steamers.  What  incredible  folly  to  hoist 
such  a  big  sail  on  a  spruce  mast,  which  bends  like 
a  bow  when  a  strong  wind  strikes  it.  The  lee- 
shroud  was  hanging  slack,  likewise  the  forestay, 
and  the  whole  wind  pressure  was  lying  on  the 
windward-shroud,  which  seemed  rotten.  Trust 
to  such  an  uncertain  residue  as  a  few  flax  ropes 
more  or  less  cohesive,  he  would  not,  and  there- 
fore he  turned  with  the  next  gust  of  wind  to  the 
subordinate  who  was  sitting  close  to  the  halyard, 
and  in  a  short  penetrating  voice  commanded, 
**  Let  the  sail  run !  " 

The  two  Inferiors  looked  toward  the  stern, 
awaiting  the  helmsman's  orders,  but  the  fish  com- 
missioner repeated  his  command  Instantly  and 
with  such  emphasis  that  the  sail  sank. 

The  surveyor  in  the  stern  shrieked. 

"  Who  the  Devil  commands  the  maneuvering 
of  my  boat?  '* 


'6  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

"  I,"  answered  the  commissioner. 

Whereupon  he  turned  to  the  subordinates  witK 
the  order. 

"  Put  out  the  oars !  " 

The  oars  were  put  out  and  the  boat  gave  a  few 
rolls,  for  the  surveyor  had  left  the  tiller  angrily 
at  the  command,  exclaiming, 

"  Yes,  then  he  can  take  the  helm  himself!  " 

The  commissioner  at  once  took  his  place  in  the 
stern  and  the  tiller  was  under  his  arm  before  the 
surveyor  had  ceased  swearing. 

The  glace-glove  cracked  instantly  at  the  thumb, 
but  the  boat  made  even  speed  while  the  surveyor 
sat  with  laughter  in  his  whiskers,  and  one  oar 
ready  to  push  out  to  give  course  to  the  boat. 
The  commissioner  had  no  attention  to  bestow 
upon  the  doubting  seaman,  but  stared  attentively 
windward  and  could  soon  discern  a  heaving  sea 
with  its  swell  many  meters  long,  from  the  surge 
with  its  short  water  fall,  then  after  a  hasty  glance 
astern  he  measured  the  leeway,  and  in  the  wake 
noted  the  setting  of  the  currents,  it  was  perfectly 
clear  what  course  must  be  held  not  to  drift  past  the 
East  Skerries. 

The  surveyor,  who  had  searched  long  to  meet 
the  black  burning  glances  that  they  might  mark 
his  laughter,  became  tired,  for  it  looked  as  though 
they  would  have  no  contact  with  anything  that 
could  soil  or  disturb  them.     After  a  moment's  be- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  7 

seeching  the  surveyor  becoming  absent  and  de- 
jected began  to  observe  the  maneuvering. 

The  sun  had  reached  the  horizon,  the  waves 
were  breaking  purple  black  at  the  base,  deep 
green  at  the  side,  and  where  the  crests  rose  high- 
est they  lighted  up  grass  green.  The  foam 
sprouted  and  hissed  red  champagne  colored  in  the 
sun.  The  boat  and  men  were  now  low  down  in 
the  dusk,  or  the  next  moment,  on  the  crest  of  a 
wave,  the  four  faces  glowed  and  Instantly  faded 
away. 

Not  every  wave  broke  so  high,  some  were  only 
rocking  slowly  and  cradling  the  boat,  lifting  and 
sucking  it  forward.  It  seemed  as  though  the 
little  man  at  the  tiller  could  from  a  distance 
judge  when  a  gigantic  wave  would  come,  and 
with  a  slight  push  at  the  tiller  held  firm  or 
sneaked  between  the  dreadful  green  walls,  which 
threatened  to  spring  and  form  an  arch  over  the 
boat. 

The  fact  was  that  the  danger  had  really  in- 
creased through  the  sail  being  furled,  for  the  driv- 
ing power  had  diminished  and  the  sail's  lifting 
ability  must  be  dispensed  with,  therefore  the  sur- 
veyor's astonishment  at  the  incredible  fine  maneu- 
vering began  to  change  to  admiration. 

He  looked  at  the  changing  expression  on  the 
pale  face  and  the  movement  in  the  black  eyes,  and 
felt  that  inside  there  was  a  combined  calculation. 


8  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

Then  not  to  seem  superfluous  himself  he  put  out 
his  oar,  for  he  felt  the  time  had  come,  and  ac- 
knowledged wilHngly  the  superiority  before  it 
was  wrung  from  him,  thus: 

"  Oh,  he  has  been  at  sea  before !  " 

The  fish  commissioner,  who  was  deeply  occu- 
pied, and  would  have  no  intercourse  whatever,  as 
he  was  afraid  of  being  surprised  and  deceived  in 
a  moment's  weakness  by  the  apparent  external 
superiority  of  the  giant,  made  no  response. 

His  right  glove  had  cracked  round  the  thumb, 
and  the  bracelet  had  fallen  over  the  hand.  When 
the  flame  faded  from  the  crest  of  the  waves  and 
the  day  closed,  he  took  out  with  his  left  hand  a 
lorgnette  and  placed  it  in  his  right  eye,  moving 
his  head  quickly  to  several  points  of  the  compass 
as  though  he  would  sight  land,  where  no  land  was 
to  be  seen,  and  then  threw  this  brief  question  for- 
ward. 

"  Have  you  no  lighthouse  on  the  East  Sker- 
ries?" 

"  God  knows  we  have  not,"  answered  the  sur- 
veyor. 

"  Have  we  any  shoals?  " 

"  Deep  water." 

"  Shall  we  sight  Landsort  or  Sandham's  light- 
house? " 

"  Not  much  of  Sandham  but  more  to  Land- 
sort,"  replied  the  surveyor. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  9 

"  Sit  still  at  your  places  and  we  shall  come  out 
all  right,"  finished  the  commissioner,  who  seemed 
to  have  taken  a  bearing  by  the  heads  of  the  three 
men  and  some  unknown  firm  point  in  the  distance. 

The  clouds  had  flocked  together  and  the  May 
dusk  had  given  place  to  obscurity.  It  was  like 
a  swing  forwards  into  some  thin  impenetrable 
material,  without  light.  The  sea  was  rising  only 
as  darker  shadows  against  the  shadowy  sky,  the 
heads  of  the  waves  struck  the  bottom  of  the  boat 
and  lifting  it  up  on  their  backs  dived  down  on  the 
other  side  and  rolled  out.  But  now  to  separate 
friend  from  foe  was  difiicult  and  the  calculation 
more  uncertain.  Two  oars  were  out  to  leeward 
and  one  to  windward,  which  if  applied  with  more 
or  less  power  at  the  right  moment  would  keep 
the  boat  buoyant. 

The  commissioner,  who  soon  could  not  see 
more  than  the  two  lighthouses  in  north  and  south, 
must  now  compensate  the  loss  of  sight  by  the  ear 
and  before  he  could  become  used  to  the  sea's 
roaring,  sighing,  hissing  and  spouting,  or  dis- 
tinguish between  a  dashing  or  a  surging  wave,  the 
water  had  already  come  into  the  boat,  so  that  to 
save  his  fine  shoes  he  placed  his  feet  on  a  thwart. 

Soon  he  had  studied  the  harmony  of  the  waves, 
and  could  even  hear  from  the  regular  beating  of 
the  swell  the  danger  approaching,  and  feel  on  the 
right  ear-drum  when  the  wind  pressed  the  harder 


lo  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

and  threatened  to  toss  the  water  higher.  It  was  as 
though  he  had  Improvised  nautical  and  meteor- 
ological Instruments  out  of  his  susceptible  senses 
from  which  the  conductors  connected  with  his  big 
brain  battery,  hidden  by  that  little  ridiculous  hat 
and  the  black  bang. 

The  men  who  at  the  moment  of  the  water's  In- 
trusion muttered  rebellious  words,  became  silenced 
when  they  felt  how  the  boat  shot  forward,  and 
at  each  word  of  command,  windward,  or  leeward, 
they  knew  which  way  to  pull. 

The  commissioner  had  taken  his  bearings  on 
the  two  lighthouses  and  used  the  lorgnette  quad- 
rangle glass  as  a  distance  measure,  but  the  diffi- 
culty of  holding  the  course  was  that  no  light  could 
be  seen  from  the  windows  of  the  cottages  since 
they  were  In  the  lee  of  the  hillock.  When  the 
dangerous  voyage  had  been  continued  an  hour  or 
more,  a  dark  rise  was  observed  forward  against 
the  horizon.  The  helmsman,  who  would  not,  to 
gain  doubtful  advice,  disturb  his  own  intuitions  on 
which  he  relied  most,  bore  down  on  what  he  sup- 
posed to  be  the  East  Skerries  or  some  of  their 
points,  consoling  himself  that  arriving  at  a  firm 
object,  whatever  It  might  be,  was  always  better 
than  hovering  between  air  and  water.  The  dark 
wall  approached  with  a  speed  greater  than  that  of 
the  boat  so  that  suspicion  dawned  In  the  com- 
missioner's mind  that  everything  was  not  right  in. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  ii 

their  course.  In  order  to  ascertain  what  it  could 
be  and  at  the  same  time  give  a  signal  in  case  the 
obscure  object  should  be  a  vessel  which  had 
neglected  to  put  its  lights  out,  he  took  up  his  box 
of  storm  matches  and  lighting  them  all,  held  them 
up  in  the  air  a  moment,  then  threw  them  up  so 
that  they  illuminated  a  few  meters  around  the 
boat.  The  light  penetrated  the  darkness  for  only 
a  second,  but  the  picture  which  appeared  like  a 
magic-lantern  view  was  fixed  before  his  eyes  for 
several  seconds,  and  he  saw  drifting  ice  heaved 
upon  a  rock,  against  which  a  wave  broke  like  a 
cave  over  a  gigantic  rock  of  limespar,  and  a  flock 
of  long-tailed  ducks  and  sea-gulls  that  arose  with 
numerous  shrieks  and  were  drowned  in  the  dark- 
ness. The  sight  of  the  breaking  wave  affected 
the  commissioner  as  it  does  the  condemned  to 
look  upon  the  coffin  in  which  his  decapitated  body 
shall  rest,  and  he  felt  in  a  moment  of  imagination 
the  double  pang  of  cold  and  smothering,  but  the 
agony  which  paralyzed  his  muscles  awoke  on  the 
other  hand  all  the  concealed  powers  of  the  soul, 
so  that  he,  in  a  fraction  of  a  second,  could  make  a 
sure  estimate  of  how  great  the  danger  was,  and 
count  out  the  only  way  of  escape,  whereupon  he 
cried  out,  "Holdall!" 

The  men  who  had  been  sitting  with  their  backs 
toward  the  wave  and  had  not  observed  it,  rested 
on  their  oars,  and  the  boat  was  sucked  into  the 


12  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

wave  which  might  have  been  three  or  four  meters 
high.  It  broke  over  the  boat,  forming  a  green 
cupola  and  fell  on  the  other  side  with  all  Its  mass 
of  water.  The  boat  was  disgorged  half  filled 
with  water  and  the  occupants  half  smothered 
from  the  dreadful  compression  of  air.  Three 
outcries  as  from  sleepers  who  have  the  nightmare 
were  heard  at  a  time,  but  the  fourth,  the  man  at 
the  tiller,  was  silent.  He  made  only  a  gesture 
with  his  hand  toward  the  rock  where  now  a  light 
was  shimmering,  only  a  few  cable  lengths  to  lee- 
ward, and  then  sank  in  the  stern  sheets  and  lay 
there. 

The  boat  ceased  pitching  for  it  had  come  Into 
smooth  water,  the  oarsmen  were  all  sitting  as  if 
intoxicated,  dipping  the  oars,  which  were  now 
unnecessary  for  the  boat  was  slowly  wafted  Into 
harbor  by  the  fair  wind. 

"What  have  you  in  the  boat,  good  folks?" 
greeted  an  old  fisherman  after  he  had  said  "  Good 
evening,"  which  the  wind  swept  away. 

"  It  should  be  a  fish  instructor!  "  whispered  the 
surveyor  as  he  pulled  the  boat  upon  the  beach. 

"  So  It  Is  such  a  one  who  comes  to  spy  out  the 
nets!  Well,  he  shall  be  treated  as  he  seeks  to 
be,"  said  fisherman  Oman,  who  seemed  to  be  head 
rrian  for  the  few  poor  population  of  the  Island. 

The  custom  house  surveyor  waited  for  the  In- 
structor to  go  on  shore,  but  he  saw  no  sign  of 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  13 

movement  in  that  little  bundle  which  lay  in  the 
stern  so  he  climbed  uneasily  into  the  boat  and 
clasped  both  arms  round  the  prostrate  body  and 
carried  it  to  the  beach. 

"  Is  he  gone?  "  asked  Oman,  not  without  a  cer- 
tain tremor  of  hope. 

"  There  isn't  much  of  him  left,"  answered  the 
surveyor  as  he  carried  his  wet  load  up  to  the 
cottage. 

The  sight  reminded  of  a  giant  and  a  lilliputian 
when  the  imposing  surveyor  entered  his  brother's 
kitchen  where  his  sister-in-law  stood  at  the  fire, 
and  as  he  laid  down  the  little  body  on  the  sofa  an 
expression  of  compassion  for  the  weaker  man 
gleamed  from  the  low-browed,  dark-whiskered 
visage. 

"  Here  we  have  the  fish  inspector,  Mary,"  he 
greeted  his  sister-in-law,  placing  his  arm  round  her 
waist.  "  Help  us  now  to  get  something  dry  upon 
him  and  something  wet  into  him  and  then  let  him 
go  to  his  room." 

The  commissioner  made  a  wretched  and  ridicu- 
lous figure  as  he  lay  on  the  hard  wooden  sofa. 
The  white  standing  collar  twisted  around  his  neck 
like  a  dirty  rag,  all  of  the  fingers  of  the  right  hand 
peeped  out  of  the  cracked  glove  over  which  the 
softened  cufFs  hung  sticking  with  the  dissolved 
starch.  The  small  crocodile  shoes  had  lost  all 
shine   and  shape,   and  it  was  with  the  greatest 


14  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

effort  that  the  surveyor  and  his  sister-in-law  could 
pull  them  off  the  feet. 

When  he  was  finally  deprived  of  most  of  his 
clothing  and  covered  with  quilts,  they  carried  him 
boiled  milk  and  schnapps,  each  shaking  an  arm, 
after  which  the  surveyor  raised  the  little  body  and 
slowly  poured  the  milk  into  It.  Beneath  the 
closed  eyes  the  mouth  gaped,  but  when  the  sister- 
in-law  would  give  him  a  dram,  the  smell  seemed 
to  act  like  a  quick  poison;  with  a  gesture  of  the 
hand  he  pushed  the  glass  back,  and  opening  his 
eyes  wide  awake  as  though  just  finishing  a  refresh- 
ing sleep,  he  asked  for  his  room. 

Of  course  it  was  not  in  order  but  it  would  be 
in  about  an  hour  if  he  would  only  lie  still  and  wait. 

The  commissioner  was  lying  there  spending  an 
intolerable  hour  with  his  eyes  flitting  over  the 
tiresome  arrangements  of  the  chamber  and  its 
occupants.  It  was  the  government's  cottage  for 
the  surveyor  of  that  little  department  of  the  cus- 
tom house  on  the  East  Skerries.  Everything  was 
scanty,  merely  a  roof  over  the  head.  The  white, 
bare  walls  were  as  narrow  as  the  Crown's  ideas, 
four  white  rectangles  which  enclosed  a  room 
covered  by  a  white  rectangle.  Strange,  hard  as 
a  hotel  room,  which  is  not  to  dwell  in,  only  for 
lodging.  To  put  on  wall  papers  for  his  successor 
or  for  the  Crown,  neither  the  surveyor  nor  his 
predecessors  had  the  heart.     In  the  midst  of  this 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  15 

dead  whiteness  stood  dark,  poor,  factory-made  fur- 
niture, with  half  modern  shapes.  A  round  dining 
table  of  knotted  pine  stained  with  walnut  and 
marked  with  white  rings  from  dishes,  chairs  of 
the  same  material  with  high  backs,  and  tilting  on 
three  legs,  a  bed-sofa,  manufactured  like  ready- 
made  men's  clothing,  from  the  cheapest  and  least 
possible  material.  Nothing  seemed  to  fulfill  Its 
purpose  of  Inviting  rest  and  comfort,  everything 
was  useless,  and  therefore  unsightly,  notwith- 
standing Its  ornaments  of  papier  mache. 

The  surveyor  placed  his  broad  buttock  on  a  rat- 
tan chair  and  rested  his  mighty  back  against  It,  the 
maneuver  was  followed  by  annoying  creaks  and 
a  morose  exhortation  from  the  sister-in-law,  to  be 
careful  of  other  folk's  things,  v/hereupon  the  sur- 
veyor answered  with  an  Impudent  patting  followed 
by  a  look  which  left  no  doubt  as  to  the  relations 
existing  between  them. 

The  oppression  which  the  w^hole  room  had 
caused  In  the  commissioner  was  increased  by  the 
discovery  of  this  discord.  As  naturalist  he  had 
not  the  current  Ideas  about  what  was  permissible 
and  what  was  not  permissible,  but  he  had  a 
strongly  Impressed  Instinct  of  the  designs  in  cer- 
tain arrangements  of  nature's  laws  and  suffered 
internally  when  he  saw  nature's  commands  vio- 
lated. This  was  to  him  as  though  he  should  have 
found  In  his  laboratory  an  acid  which  since  the 


1 6  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

world's  creation  had  only  united  with  one  base  but 
was  now,  against  Its  nature,  forming  a  union  with 
two. 

His  Imagination  was  stirred  In  remonstrance 
over  evolution  from  common  sensuality  to  monog- 
amy, and  he  felt  himself  back  in  the  dark  ages 
among  wild  herds  of  human  beings,  who  lived  a 
coral  life  and  existed  In  masses,  before  selection 
and  variation  were  attained  to  ordain  Individual 
personal  being  and  consanguinity. 

When  he  saw  a  two-years-old  girl  with  too  big 
a  head  and  fish  eyes  walking  around  the  chamber 
with  timid  footsteps,  as  though  afraid  to  be  seen, 
he  comprehended  at  once  that  a  doubtful  birth 
had  sown  Its  seeds  of  discord  which  were  working 
dissolution  and  disturbance,  and  he  could  easily 
understand  that  the  moment  must  come  when  this 
living  testimony  would  pay  all  the  penalties  of 
being  an  involuntary  witness. 

In  the  midst  of  these  thoughts  the  door  opened 
and  the  husband  entered. 

It  was  the  surveyor's  brother  who  had  thus  far 
remained  a  subordinate.  He  was  physically  even 
better  endowed  than  the  surveyor,  but  he  was  a 
blond  with  an  open  and  friendly  look. 

After  a  cheerful  *'  Good  evening,"  he  sat  down 
at  the  table  beside  his  brother  and,  taking  the 
child  on  his  lap,  kissed  It. 

"  We  have  a  visitor,"  said  the  surveyor,  point- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  17 

ing  to  the  sofa  where  the  commissioner  lay.  "  It 
is  the  fish  instructor,  who  will  live  upstairs." 

"So,  it  is  he?"  said  Vestman,  as  he  rose  to 
greet  him. 

With  the  child  on  his  arm  he  approached  the 
sofa,  because  he  was  host  of  the  cottage,  while  his 
brother  was  unmarried  and  only  boarded  with 
him.  Therefore  he  found  it  his  place  to  welcome 
the  guest. 

"  We  have  it  simply  out  here,"  added  he  after 
a  few  words  of  welcome,  "  but  my  wife  isn't 
entirely  at  a  loss  in  preparing  food,  since  she 
has  served  in  better  houses  before,  and  married 
me  three  years  ago,  yet  since  we  got  this  brat  here 
she  has  a  little  more  to  think  of.  Yes,  anybody 
can  get  children  if  they  help  each  other, —  as  a 
matter  of  course  I  am  not  in  need  of  help,  as  they 
say." 

The  commissioner  was  surprised  at  the  sudden 
turn  the  long  sentence  had  taken,  and  asked  him- 
self if  the  man  was  cognizant  of  anything,  or  if  he 
had  only  a  feeling  that  there  was  something  out  of 
order.  He  himself  had  seen  in  ten  minutes  the 
way  things  stood. 

How  then  was  it  possible  that  he  who  was  in- 
terested in  the  question  had  seen  nothing  in  a 
couple  of  years? 

He  was  overcome  with  loathing  at  the  whole 
thing,  and  turned  to  the  wall  to  blind  his  eyes,  and 


1 8  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

with  mental  pictures  of  a  pleasant  nature  let  the 
remaining  half  hour  pass. 

He  could  not  make  himself  deaf,  and  heard 
against  his  will  the  talk,  which  a  short  time  before 
had  been  lively,  becoming  broken  as  though  the 
words  were  measured  with  a  rule  before  spoken, 
and  when  there  was  a  silence  the  husband  filled  it 
out  as  though  from  aversion,  and  fearing  to  hear 
something  he  would  not  hear,  and  could  not  be 
calm  before  his  own  stream  of  words  intoxicated 
him. 

When  the  hour  was  finally  to  an  end  and  no 
order  concerning  the  room  had  been  given,  the 
commissioner  rising  asked  if  It  was  ready. 

O  yes,  it  was  ready  in  a  way,  but  — 

Here  the  commissioner  asked  In  a  tone  of  com- 
mand to  be  shown  to  his  room  at  once,  reminding 
them  in  fitting  words  that  he  had  not  come  to 
^  share  a  room  with  them,  or  for  hospitality,  he 
was  traveling  on  the  Crown's  errands  and  only 
asked  for  his  rights — and  those  he  would  have 
because  of  a  memorial  from  the  Civil  Department 
through  the  Internal  Revenue  Office,  which  had 
been  sent  to  the  Royal  Custom  House  In  Dalaro. 

This  straightened  affairs  at  once,  and  Vestman, 
with  a  candle  In  his  fist,  followed  the  severe  gentle- 
man upstairs  to  the  gable  chamber,  where  nothing 
In  the  arrangements  could  explain  the  requested 
hour's  delay. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  19 

It  was  an  ordinary,  large  room  with  walls  as 
white  as  those  downstairs,  the  big  window  opened 
on  the  longest  wall  as  a  black  hole  through  which 
streamed  the  darkness  unimpeded  by  any  curtains. 

A  bed  stood  there  ready  for  use,  simple,  only 
an  elevation  of  the  floor  to  prevent  drafts,  a  table, 
two  chairs  and  a  washstand  comprised  the  furni- 
ture. The  commissioner  threw  a  look  of  despair 
about  him,  when  he,  who  was  used  to  feast  his 
eyes  to  satisfaction  on  luxuries,  saw  only  these 
scattered  articles  placed  about  in  space,  where  the 
candle  battled  with  the  darkness  and  where  the 
big  window  seemed  to  consume  every  beam  of 
light  which  was  produced  by  the  burning  tallow. 

He  felt  lost,  as  though  after  battling  upwards 
for  half  his  maturity  to  attain  refinement,  good 
position  and  luxuries,  he  had  fallen  to  poverty, 
moved  down  to  a  lower  class.  It  was  as  though 
his  love  of  beauty  and  wisdom  were  imprisoned, 
deprived  of  their  nourishment  and  subject  to 
banishment.  Those  naked  walls  were  a  middle 
age  cloister  cell  where  asceticism  In  image,  and 
emptiness  In  the  middle  hurried  the  famined  fan- 
tasy to  gnaw  Itself  and  bring  forth  lighter  or 
darker  fancies  only  to  become  extricated  from 
nothing.  The  white,  the  shapeless,  the  colorless 
nothing  In  the  whitewashed  walls  raised  an  ac- 
tivity of  the  imagination  such  as  a  savage's  cave 
or  a  green  bough  hut  never  could  have  evoked,  or 


20  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

the  forest  with  its  ever  changing  colors  and  mov- 
ing outlines  would  have  dispensed.  An  activity 
that  not  the  field,  nor  the  heath  with  the  clouds' 
and  sky's  rich  coloring,  nor  yet  the  never  tiring 
sea,  could  call  forth. 

He  felt  at  once  a  rising  desire  instantly  to  paint 
the  walls  full  of  sunny  landscapes  with  palms  and 
parrots,  to  stretch  a  Persian  rug  over  the  ceiling 
and  throw  hides  of  deer  upon  the  plank  floor 
covering  the  ruled-ledger  appearance,  to  place 
sofas  in  the  corners  with  small  tables  in  front,  to 
suspend  a  hanging  lamp  over  a  round  table  strewn 
with  books  and  magazines,  stand  a  piano  against 
the  short  wall  and  dress  the  long  wall  with  book 
shelves,  and  away  in  the  corner  of  the  sofa  set  a 
little  woman's  figure,  no  matter  which  one !  — 
Just  as  the  candle  on  the  table  fought  against  the 
darkness,  so  his  fantasy  r-ebelled  against  the 
room's  arrangements,  and  thus  it  lost  its  hold, 
everything  disappeared,  and  the  dreadful  sur- 
roundings frightened  him  to  bed.  Quenching  the 
light  he  drew  the  blankets  over  his  head. 

The  wind  shook  the  whole  gable,  and  the  water 
caraff  rattled  against  the  drinking  glasses.  The 
draft  passed  through  the  room  from  window  to 
door  and  sometimes  touched  his  locks  of  hair, 
which  were  dried  from  the  sea  wind,  so  that  he 
lancied  someone  stroked  them  with  his  hand, 
while  between  the  gusts  of  wind,  like  the  striking 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  21 

of  the  kettledrum  In  an  orchestra,  beat  and 
boomed  the  big  breakers  against  the  caverned 
rocks  out  on  the  south  point.  And  when  he  had 
finally  become  used  to  the  monotonous  sound  of 
wind  and  wave,  he  heard,  shortly  before  he  fell 
asleep,  a  man's  voice  In  the  room  below  teaching 
a  child  its  evening  prayer. 


CHAPTER  SECOND 

When  the  commissioner,  after  a  dead  sleep  in- 
duced by  the  efforts  of  the  preceding  day  and  the 
strong  sea  air,  awoke  the  next  morning  and  looked 
out  of  the  blankets,  he  observed  first  an  incom- 
prehensible silence,  and  found  that  his  ear  caught 
slight  sounds  that  otherwise  he  would  have  paid 
no  attention  to.  He  could  hear  each  little  move- 
ment of  the  sheet  as  It  rose  and  fell  from  his 
respiration,  the  friction  of  his  locks  of  hair 
against  the  pillow-case,  the  pulsations  In  the  neck 
arteries,  the  rickety  bed  repeatirig  the  heart  beat 
on  a  small  scale.  He  felt  the  silence  because  the 
wind  had  gone  down,  and  only  the  swell  beat 
against  the  compressed  air  In  the  hollows  of  the 
strand  and  returned  once  every  half  minute. 
From  the  bed  which  was  placed  opposite  the  win- 
dow he  saw,  through  the  lower  pane,  something 
like  a  blue  draw-curtain,  bluer  than  the  air,  and  It 
kept  moving  toward  him  slowly,  as  though  It 
would  come  In  through  the  window  and  overflow 
the  room.  He  knew  it  was  the  sea,  but  it  looked 
so  small, —  and  It  rose  like  a  perpendicular  wall 
instead  of  expanding  as  a  horizontal  surface,  be- 

22 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  23 

cause  the  long  breakers  were  fully  lighted  by  the 
sun  and  cast  no  shadows  from  which  the  eye 
could  form  a  perspective  image. 

He  arose,  and  partly  dressing  himself  opened 
the  window.  The  raw,  moist  air  in  the  chamber 
rushed  out,  and  from  the  sea  came  a  warm  green- 
house air,  warmed  several  hours  by  the  radiant 
May  sun.  Below  the  window  he  saw  only  low, 
jagged  rocks  in  the  crevices  of  which  lay  small 
dusty  drifts  of  snow,  and  near  by  bloomed  small 
white  rye-flowers,  well  protected  in  beds  of  moss, 
and  the  poor  wild  pansies,  pale  yellow  as  from 
famine,  and  blue  as  from  chill,  hoisting  their  poor 
country's  poor  colors  to  the  first  spring  sun. 
Lower  down  crept  the  heath  and  the  crowberry 
vine,  looking  down  over  the  precipice,  below 
which  lay  a  windrow  of  white  sand,  pulverized  by 
the  sea,  and  in  which  vv'ere  stuck  scattered  sand- 
oat  stalks ;  then  came  the  kelp  belt  as  a  dark  sash 
or  braid  on  the  white  sand,  highest  up  it  was  al- 
most ivory  black  from  last  year's  kelp  in  which 
were  sticking  shells,  leaves  of  fir,  twigs,  fish  bones, 
and  toward  the  sea  it  was  olive-brown  from  the 
last  fresh  kelp,  which  with  its  curled  and  knotted 
fronds  formed  a  garniture  like  a  chenille  cord. 
Inside  on  the  sandy  side  walk  lay  the  top  of  a 
barkless  pine,  sand  scrubbed,  washed  by  the  wa- 
ter, polished  by  the  wind,  bleached  by  the  sun,  re- 
sembling the  ribs  of  a  mammoth  skeleton,  and 


24  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

around  it  a  whole  osteologist's  museum  of  like 
skeletons  or  fragments  of  the  same. 

A  beacon,  which  had  shown  ships  the  way  for 
years,  lay  thrown  up,  and  with  its  thick  end  looked 
like  the  thigh  bone  and  condyle  of  a  giraffe;  in 
another  place  a  juniper  shrub,  Hke  the  carcass  of  a 
drowned  cat,  with  its  white  small  roots  stretching 
out  for  the  tail. 

Outside  the  strand  lay  reefs  and  rocks  which' 
one  moment  glanced  wet  in  the  sunshine,  the  next 
were  submerged  by  the  swell  which  passed  over 
them  with  a  splash,  or  if  it  had  not  sufficient 
power,  rose,  burst,  and  threw  a  water-fall  of  foam 
Into  the  air. 

Outside  the  island  lay  the  shining  sea,  that 
great  flat,  as  the  fishermen  called  it,  and  now  In 
the  morning  hour  It  stretched  like  a  blue  canvas 
without  a  wrinkle  but  undulating  like  a  flag.  The 
big  round  surface  would  have  been  tiresome  had 
not  a  red  buoy  been  anchored  outside  the  reef, 
and  brightened  up  the  monotony  of  the  surface 
with  Its  minium  spot  like  the  seal  on  a  letter. 

This  was  the  sea,  certainly  nothing  new  to 
Commissioner  Borg  who  had  seen  several  corners 
of  the  world.  Still  it  was  the  desolate  sea  seen 
as  it  were  in  a  tete-a-tete.  It  did  not  terrify  like 
the  forest  with  its  gloomy  hiding  places,  it  was 
quieting  like  an  open,  big,  faithful  blue  eye. 
Everything  could  be  seen  at  once,  no  ambush,  no 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  25 

lurking  place.  It  flattered  the  spectator  when  he 
saw  this  circle  round  him,  where  he  himself  ever 
remained  the  center.  The  big  water  surface  was 
as  a  corporeity  radiating  from  the  beholder  exist- 
ing only  In  and  with  the  beholder.  As  long  as  he 
stood  on  shore,  he  felt  himself  Intimate  with  the 
now  harmless  power  and  superior  to  Its  enormous 
might,  for  he  was  beyond  Its  reach.  When  he  re- 
minded himself  of  the  dangers  he  had  undergone 
the  evening  before,  the  agony  and  wrath  he  had 
endured  In  his  combat  against  this  brutal  enemy, 
which  he  had  succeeded  In  eluding,  he  smiled  In 
magnanimity  toward  the  vanquished  and  beaten 
foe,  which  was  after  all  only  a  blind  tool  at  the 
wind's  service,  and  was  now  stretching  itself  out 
to  resume  its  rest  In  the  sunlight. 

This  was  East  Skerries,  the  classical,  for  they 
have  their  old  history,  have  lived  long,  flourished, 
and  declined,  the  old  East  Skerries  that  in  the 
Middle  Ages  were  a  great  fishing  port  where  that 
important  article  stromling  was  caught,  and  for 
which  a  special  law  of  guild  was  given  and  Is  still 
maintained  up  to  to-day.  The  stromling  serve 
the  same  purpose  In  middle  Sweden  and  Norrland 
as  the  herring  does  on  the  west  coast  and  in  Nor- 
way, being  only  a  kind  of  herring,  a  product  of 
the  Baltic  Sea,  and  suited  to  its  small  resources. 
It  was  sought  during  the  time  when  herring  were 
scarce  and  dear,  and  less  sought  after  when  thev 


26  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

were  plentiful.  It  has  been  for  ages  the  winter 
food  for  middle  Sweden,  and  was  eaten  so  con- 
tinually that  a  song  Is  still  preserved  from  the 
days  of  Queen  Christina's  enticing  Frenchmen 
into  the  country,  who  complained  of  the  eternal 
hard  bread  and  infinite  stromllng.  A  man's  age 
ago  the  great  land-owners  paid  their  laborers' 
wages  In  natural  products  which  consisted  mostly 
of  herring;  after  herring-fishing  declined  they 
substituted  salt  stromllng.  The  price  rose  and 
the  fishing  which  previously  had  been  managed 
moderately  and  for  domestic  use,  now  became  an 
eager  speculation.  The  shoals  of  the  East  Sker- 
ries which  are  the  richest  on  the  coast  of  Soder- 
manland,  began  to  be  used  on  a  large  scale,  the 
fish  were  disturbed  during  spawning  time,  the 
meshes  of  the  nets  were  made  closer  and  closer, 
and  as  a  natural  consequence  the  fish  diminished, 
not  so  much  from  extermination  perhaps  as  from 
the  fact  that  they  left  their  former  spawning 
places  and  sought  the  depths  where  as  yet  no  fish- 
erman has  had  the  resolution  to  search  for  the 
flown  prey. 

The  learned  puzzled  long  with  investigations 
over  the  cause  of  the  diminution  of  the  stromllng 
supply,  but  the  Academy  of  Agriculture  took  the 
initiative,  by  appointing  skillful  fish  commission- 
ers, both  to  learn  the  cause  and  find  a  remedy. 

This  was  now  Commissioner  Borg's  mission  at 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  27 

the  East  Skerries  for  the  summer.  The  place 
was  not  lively  as  the  Skerries  are  not  situated  on 
one  of  the  main  courses  to  Stockholm.  The  big 
vessels  from  the  south  usually  pass  by  Landsort, 
Dalaro  and  Vaxholm,  those  from  the  east,  and 
during  certain  winds,  even  those  from  the  south, 
seek  passage  by  Sandham  and  Vaxholm,  while 
the  merchants'  vessels  from  Norrland  and  Fin- 
land pass  between  Furusund  and  Vaxholm. 

The  eastern  route  is  mostly  used  in  case  of 
necessity  by  the  Esthonians,  who  as  a  rule  come 
from  south-east,  and  by  others  in  case  of  wind, 
current  and  storm.,  who  He  over  at  Landsort  and 
Sandham.  Therefore  the  place  has  only  a  third- 
class  custom  house  station  under  one  surveyor, 
and  a  little  department  of  pilots  who  are  under 
control  of  Dalaro. 

It  is  the  end  of  the  world  —  quiet,  still,  aban- 
doned, except  during  fishing  time,  fall  and  spring, 
and  if  there  comes  only  a  single  pleasure  yacht 
during  mid-summer  it  is  greeted  as  an  apparition 
from  a  lighter,  gayer  world;  but  fish  commissioner 
Borg,  who  had  come  on  another  errand  —  to 
"  spy,"  as  the  people  called  It  —  was  greeted  with 
a  noticeable  coolness  which  had  found  its  first 
utterance  in  the  Indifference  of  the  past  evening 
and  now  took  Its  expression  in  a  miserable  and 
cold  coffee  which  was  brought  to  his  chamber. 

Although  gifted  with  a  keen  sense  of  taste,  he 


28  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

had  acquired  through  strong  exercise  an  ability  to 
restrain  unpleasant  perceptions,  therefore  he 
swallowed  the  drink  at  a  draught  and  arising  went 
down  to  see  his  environment  and  greet  the  people. 

When  he  passed  the  custom-house  man's  cot- 
tage everything  was  hushed  and  it  seemed  as 
though  the  occupants  would  make  themselves  in- 
visible —  they  shut  the  doors,  and  stopped  talking 
in  order  not  to  be  betrayed. 

With  this  unpleasant  Impression  of  being  un- 
welcome, he  continued  his  promenade  out  on  the 
rock  and  came  down  to  the  harbor.  There  was 
a  group  of  small  huts  all  of  the  simplest  construc- 
tion just  as  though  piled  from  pickings  of  stone 
shingles  with  a  little  smattering  of  mortar  here 
and  there;  the  chimney  alone  was  of  brick,  rising 
above  the  fireplace.  At  one  corner  was  a  patched- 
up  wooden  addition  for  storage,  at  another  only 
a  shed  of  driftwood  and  twigs,  a  harbor  for 
swine,  which  were  shipped  here  during  the  fishing 
season  for  fattening.  The  windows  seemed  to 
have  been  taken  from  shipwrecks,  and  the  roof 
was  covered  with  everything  that  had  length  and 
width,  and  would  absorb  or  shed  rain  —  kelp, 
sand-oats,  moss,  peat,  earth.  These  were  the 
shelters  now  standing  deserted,  each  of  which 
housed  about  twenty  sleepers  during  the  big  fish- 
ing season,  when  every  hut  was  a  kitchen  bar. 

Outside  the  most  prominent  shanty  stood  the 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  29 

head  man  of  the  island,  fisherman  Oman,  scratch- 
ing out  a  flounder  net  with  a  whip.  He  did  not 
in  the  least  consider  himself  beneath  a  fish  com- 
missioner, nevertheless  he  felt  a  pressure  from 
this  presence  and  bristling  up,  prepared  to  answer 
sharply. 

"  Is  the  fishing  good?"  greeted  the  Instructor. 

"  Not  yet,  but  it  may  be  now  that  the  govern- 
ment has  come  to  do  It,"  answered  Oman  im- 
politely. 

"Where  do  the  stromling  shoals  lie?"  asked 
the  commissioner,  rehnquishing  the  government 
to  its  fate. 

"  Oh !  we  thought  the  Instructor  knew  better 
than  we  did,  as  he  is  paid  to  teach  us,"  said  Oman. 

"  See  here,  you  only  know  where  the  shoals 
He,  but  I  know  where  the  stromling  are,  which  is 
a  straw  nearer," 

"  So,"  rallied  Oman.  "  If  we  dip  into  the  sea 
we  shall  get  fish!  —  well  one  is  never  too  old  to 
learn." 

The  wife  came  out  of  the  cottage  and  began 
a  lively  talk  with  her  husband,  so  that  the  com- 
missioner found  it  unprofitable  to  confer  longer 
with  the  hostile  fisherman,  and  started  toward  the 
harbor. 

Some  pilots  were  sitting  on  the  pier  who  zeal- 
ously increased  their  conversation  and  seemed 
inclined  not  to  notice  him. 


30  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

He  would  not  turn  back  but  continued  toward 
the  strand,  leaving  the  habitations  behind.  The 
naked  rock  lay  waste,  without  a  tree,  without  a 
bush,  for  everything  that  fire  could  burn  was  de- 
Istroyed.  He  walked  along  the  water's  edge, 
sometimes  in  fine  soft  sand,  sometimes  on  stones. 
When  he  had  continued  an  hour,  always  turning 
to  the  right,  he  found  himself  in  the  same  place 
from  which  he  had  started,  with  a  feeling  of  being 
in  captivity.  The  hillock  of  the  little  island 
crushed  him,  and  the  sea's  horizontal  circle  op- 
pressed him,  the  old  feeling  of  not  having  room 
enough  came  over  him,  and  he  climbed  to  the 
highest  plateau  of  the  hillock,  which  was  about 
fifty  feet  above  the  sea  level.  There  he  lay 
down  on  his  back  and  looked  up  into  space.  Now 
when  his  eyes  could  behold  nothing,  neither  land 
nor  sea,  and  he  saw  only  the  blue  cupola  over 
him,  he  felt  free,  isolated,  as  a  cosmic  particle 
floating  in  the  ether  only  obeying  the  law  of 
gravitation.  He  fancied  he  was  perfectly  alone 
upon  the  globe,  the  earth  was  only  a  vehicle  in 
which  he  rode  on  its  orbit,  and  he  heard  in  the 
wind's  faint  rustle  only  the  air  draft  that  the 
planet  in  its  speed  would  awake  in  the  ether,  and 
in  the  din  of  the  waves  he  perceived  the  splashing 
which  the  liquid  must  make  as  the  big  reservoir 
rolled  round  its  axle.  All  reminiscences  of  fel- 
low   creatures,    community,    law,    customs,    had 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  31 

blown  away,  now  that  he  did  not  see  a  single 
fragment  of  the  earth  to  which  he  was  bound. 
He  let  his  thoughts  run  like  calves  let  loose,  dash- 
ing over  all  obstacles,  all  considerations,  and 
therewith  intoxicated  himself  to  stupefaction,  as 
the  India  navel  reverencers,  who  forgot  both 
heaven  and  earth  in  contemplating  an  inferior  ex- 
ternal part  of  themselves. 

Commissioner  Borg  was  not  a  nature  wor- 
shiper any  more  than  were  those  navel  worshipers 
of  India.  On  the  contrary  he  was  a  self-con- 
scious being,  standing  highest  in  the  terrestrial 
chain  of  creation  and  entertained  certain  contempt 
for  the  lower  forms  of  existence,  understanding 
very  well  that  what  the  self-conscious  spirit  pro- 
duces is  partly  more  subtle  than  that  of  the  un- 
conscious nature,  and  above  all  else  has  more 
advantages  to  man,  who  creates  his  creations  with 
regard  to  the  usefulness  and  beauty  they  may  af- 
ford to  their  creator.  Out  of  nature  he  brought 
forth  raw  material  for  his  work,  and  although 
both  light  and  air  could  be  produced  by  machine, 
he  preferred  the  sun's  unexcellable  ether  vibra- 
tions, and  the  atmosphere's  inexhaustible  well  of 
oxygen.  He  loved  nature  as  an  assistant,  as  an 
Inferior  who  could  serve  him,  and  it  pleased  him 
that  he  was  able  to  fool  this  powerful  adversary 
to  place  its  resources  at  his  disposal. 

After  having  lain  an  uncertain  time  and  felt 


32  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

the  great  rest  of  absolute  solitude,  freedom  from 
influences,  from  pressure,  he  arose  and  went 
down  to  seek  his  room. 

When  he  entered  his  empty  chamber  it  re- 
echoed his  footsteps  and  he  felt  himself  en- 
trapped. The  white  quadrant  and  rectangles 
that  enclosed  the  room  where  he  must  dwell,  re- 
minded him  of  human  hands,  but  of  a  low  order, 
mastering  only  the  simple  forms  of  inorganic  na- 
ture. He  was  enclosed  in  a  crystal,  a  hexaedron 
or  the  like,  and  the  straight  lines  and  the  con- 
gruent surfaces,  shaped  his  thoughts  into  squares, 
and  ruled  his  soul  In  lines,  simplifying  it  from  the 
organic  life's  liberty  of  forms,  and  reduced  his 
brain's  rich  tropical  vegetation  of  changing  per- 
ceptions to  nature's  first  childish  attempt  at  classi- 
fying. 

After  he  had  called  to  the  girl  and  let  her  bring 
In  his  chests,  he  began  at  once  the  transformation 
of  the  room. 

His  first  care  was  to  regulate  the  entrance  of 
light  by  a  pair  of  heavy  garnet  Persian  curtains, 
that  Instantly  gave  the  room  a  softer  tone.  He 
opened  the  two  leaves  of  the  big  dining  table  and 
the  emptiness  of  the  big  white  floor  was  filled  at 
once,  but  the  white  surface  of  the  table  was  still 
disturbing,  so  he  concealed  It  under  an  oilclotH 
of  a  solid  warm  moss-green  color  which  harmo- 
nized with  the  curtains  and  was  restful.     Then  he 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  33 

placed  his  book  shelves  against  the  poorest  wall. 
This  certainly  was  not  an  improvement  as  they 
only  striped  It  in  columns  like  a  time-table,  and 
the  white  plastering  contrasted  more  against  the 
black  walnut  colored  wood,  but  he  would  first  out- 
line the  whole  before  he  went  into  details. 

From  a  nail  in  the  ceiling  he  hung  his  bed  cur- 
tains, this  made  as  it  were,  a  room  within  the 
room,  and  the  dormitory  was  separated  from  the 
sitting  room,  as  though  under  a  tent. 

The  long  white  floor  planks  with  their  black 
parallel  cracks,  where  dirt  from  shoes,  dust  from 
furniture  and  clothes,  tobacco  ashes,  scrubbing 
water  and  broom  splinters,  formed  hot  beds  for 
fungi  and  hiding  places  for  wood  worms,  he 
covered  here  and  there  with  rugs  of  different 
colors  and  patterns,  which  lay  like  verdant  bloom- 
ing islets  on  the  big  white  flat. 

Now  that  there  was  color  and  warmth  added 
to  the  space  he  began  to  give  the  finishing  touches. 
He  had  first  to  create  a  forge,  an  altar  to  labor 
which  would  be  the  center  round  which  every- 
thing would  be  grouped  and  radiating  from  it. 
Therefore  he  placed  his  big  lamp  on  the  writing 
table,  it  was  two  feet  high  and  rose  like  a  light- 
house upon  the  green  cloth,  its  painted  china 
stand  with  arabesques,  flowers  and  animals, 
which  bore  no  resemblance  to  ordinary  ones,  but 
gave  a  cheerful  coloring  and  reminded  with  their 


34  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

ornaments,  of  the  human  spirit's  power  to  outrage 
nature's  unchangeable  shapes.  Here  had  the 
painter  transformed  a  stiff  spear  thistle  to  a  cling- 
ing vine,  and  forced  a  rabbit  to  stretch  himself 
out  like  a  crocodile,  and  with  a  gun  between  his 
fore  paws  with  their  tiger  claw  nails,  to  aim  at  a 
hunter  with  a  fox's  head. 

Round  the  lamp  he  placed  a  microscope, 
diopter,  scales,  plumb  bobs,  and  a  sounding  rod, 
whose  varnished  brasses  diffused  a  warm  sunlight 
yellow. 

The  inkstand,  a  big  cube  of  glass  cut  in  facets, 
which  gave  it  the  faint  blue  light  of  water  or  Ice, 
the  penholders  of  porcupine  quills  which  sug- 
gested animal  life  with  their  indefinite  oily  color- 
ing, sticks  of  sealing  wax  In  loud  cinnabar,  pen 
boxes  with  variegated  labels,  scissors  with  cold 
steel  glance,  cigar  dishes  In  lac  and  gold,  paper 
knife  of  bronze,  all  that  mass  of  small  trifles  of 
use  and  beauty  soon  filled  the  big  table  abundantly 
with  points  on  which  the  eye  could  rest  a  moment 
getting  an  Impression,  a  memory,  an  Impulse, 
keeping  It  always  active  and  never  fatiguing. 

Now  for  filling  the  spaces  In  the  book  shelves, 
and  blow  the  breath  of  life  Into  the  vac- 
uum between  the  dark  boards.  There  soon  stood 
row  upon  row  a  variegated  collection  of  reference 
and  handbooks,  from  which  the  owner  could  get 
enlightenment  on  all  that  had  happened  In  the 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  35 

past  and  present  time.  Encyclopedias,  which 
like  an  air  telegraph  answered  with  a  pressure  on 
the  right  letter.  Text-books  in  history,  philoso- 
phy, archeology,  and  natural  sciences,  journeys  in 
all  lands  with  maps,  all  of  Baedeker's  handbooks 
so  that  the  owner  could  sit  at  home  and  plan  the 
shortest  and  cheapest  route  to  this  or  that  place, 
and  decide  which  hotel,  and  know  how  much  to 
give  in  drink  money.  But  as  all  of  these  works 
have  an  inevitable  seed  of  decay,  he  had  manned 
a  special  shelf  with  an  observation  corps  of  scien- 
tific journals  from  which  he  could  immediately 
obtain  reports  concerning  even  the  smallest  ad- 
vancements of  knowledge,  even  the  slightest 
discoveries.  And  at  last  a  whole  collection  of 
skeleton  keys  to  all  present  knowledge,  in  biblio- 
graphical notices,  publishers'  catalogues,  book- 
sellers' newspapers,  so  that  he,  shut  up  In  his 
room,  could  see  precisely  how  high  or  low  the 
barometer  stood  with  all  the  science  that  con- 
cerned him. 

When  he  regarded  the  wall  with  the  book 
shelf,  It  seemed  to  him  as  though  the  room  was 
now  for  the  first  time  Inhabited  by  living  beings. 
These  books  gave  the  impression  of  individuals 
for  there  were  not  two  works  of  the  same  ex- 
terior. One  was  a  Baedeker  in  scarlet  and  gold, 
like  one  who  on  a  Monday  morning  leaves  all 
behind    him    and    travels    away    from    sorrow. 


36  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

Others  solemn,  dressed  in  black,  a  whole  proces- 
sion, like  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  and  all 
the  many  paper  covered  ones  in  light,  gay,  easy, 
spring  coats,  the  salmon  red  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes,  the  lemon  yellow  Comtemporaine,  the 
rush  green  Fortnightly,  the  grass  green  Morgen- 
landische.  From  the  backs  big  names  saluted 
him  as  acquaintances  whom  he  had  in  his  cham- 
ber, and  here  he  had  the  best  part  of  them,  more 
than  they  could  give  a  traveler  who  came  on  a 
visit  to  trouble  their  dinner  naps  or  breakfast. 

With  the  writing  table  and  the  book  shelves 
placed  in  order,  he  felt  himself  recovered  after 
the  voyage's  disturbing  influences;  his  soul  re- 
gained its  strength  since  his  implements  were  ac- 
cessible, these  instruments  and  books  which  had 
grown  fast  to  his  being  as  new  senses,  as  other 
organs  stronger  and  finer  than  those  nature  had 
given  him  as  an  inheritance. 

The  occasional  attack  of  fear  which  was 
caused  from  isolation,  solitude  and  from  being 
pent-up  with  enemies  —  for  thus  he  considered 
the  fishermen,  with  reason  —  gave  way  before  the 
quiet  which  the  installment  must  induce,  and  now, 
the  headquarters  being  raised,  he  sat  down  as  a 
well-armed  general  to  plan  for  the  campaign. 


CHAPTER  THIRD 

The  wind  had  shifted  north-east  during  the 
night  and  the  drifting  ice  had  floated  down  from 
Aland,  when  the  commissioner  took  his  boat  to 
make  a  preparatory  investigation  of  the  quality  of 
the  sea's  bottom  depth  of  water,  sea  flora  and  sea 
fauna. 

A  pilot  who  was  with  him  as  oarsman,  soon 
became  tired  of  giving  explanations,  when  he  saw 
that  the  commissioner  by  means  of  chart,  sound- 
ing lead  and  other  different  instruments,  found 
out  facts  that  he  had  never  thought  of.  Where 
the  shoals  lay  was  known  to  the  pilot,  and  he  also 
knew  on  which  shoal  the  stromling  nets  should  be 
set,  but  the  commissioner  was  not  satisfied  with 
this  and  began  to  dredge  at  different  depths,  tak- 
ing up  small  creatures  and  vegetable  slime  on 
which  he  believed  the  stromling  fed.  He  low- 
ered the  lead  to  the  bottom  and  drew  up  samples 
of  clay,  sand,  mud,  mold  and  gravel,  which  he 
assorted,  numbered  and  placed  in  small  glasses 
with  labels. 

Finally  he  took  out  a  big  spyglass  which  re- 
sembled a  speaking  trumpet,   and  looked  down 

37 


38'  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

into  the  sea.  The  pilot  had  never  dreamed  that 
one  could  gaze  Into  the  water  with  an  instrument 
and  in  his  astonishment  asked  permission  to  place 
his  eye  to  the  glass  and  look  down  into  the 
mysteries. 

The  commissioner  on  the  one  hand  would  not 
play  wizard,  and  on  the  other  did  not  desire 
hastily  to  solve  the  problem  which  time  would 
clear  up,  or  to  Inspire  too  high  hopes  about  the 
results,  he  therefore  granted  the  pilot's  entreaty 
and  gave  some  popular  explanation  of  the  living 
pictures  which  were  unfolding  down  In  the  depths. 

"Do  you  see  that  seaweed  upon  the  shoal?'* 
began  the  commissioner,  "  and  do  you  see  that  it 
is  first  olive  yellow,  lower  down  liver  colored  and 
at  the  bottom  red?  That  comes  from  the  dim- 
inution of  light!  " 

He  took  a  few  pulls  at  the  oars,  off  the  shal- 
low, and  kept  constantly  to  lee  of  the  rock  so  as 
to  keep  free  from  the  drifting  ice. 

"What  do  you  see  now?"  he  asked  the  man 
who  lay  on  his  stomach. 

"  Oh  Jesus !  I  think  it  Is  stromling,  and  they 
are  standing  close,  as  close  as  cards  in  a  pack." 

"  Do  you  see  now  that  .the  stromling  go  not 
on  the  shallows  only,  and  do  you  understand  now 
that  one  could  catch  them  from  the  depths,  and 
do  you  believe  now  when  I  tell  you  that  one  ought 
never  to  fish  them  on  the  shallows  where  they 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  39 

only  go  up  to  spawn  where  the  eggs  are  reached 
by  the  sun's  heat  better  than  in  deep  water?" 

The  commissioner  rowed  on  until  he  saw  the 
water  become  greenish  gray  on  account  of  the 
nature  of  the  clay  bottom. 

"  What  do  you  see  now?  "  he  continued,  mean- 
while resting  on  the  oars. 

"  I  believe,  on  my  soul,  there  are  serpents  on 
the  sea  bottom!  there  are  real  serpents'  tails 
sticking  out  of  the  mud  —  and  there  are  their 
heads." 

"  They  are  eels,  my  boy!  "  informed  the  com- 
missioner. 

The  pilot  looked  incredulous  for  he  had  never 
heard  of  eels  in  the  sea,  but  the  commissioner 
would  not  give  out  his  best  card  in  advance  or 
lavish  long  explanations  over  intricate  things, 
therefore  he  left  the  oars  and,  taking  his  water 
telescope,  leaned  over  the  gunwale  for  observa- 
tion. 

He  seemed  to  seek  something  with  uncommon 
ardor,  something  that  must  be  there,  on  this  or 
that  shoal  but  which  he  naturally  had  not  seen 
there  before,  never  having  investigated  that 
water. 

They  rowed  around  for  two  hours  as  the  com- 
missioner indicated,  sometimes  letting  down  his 
dredge,  sometimes  the  lead  line,  and  after  each 
haul  lying  face  downwards  and  looking  through 


40  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

the  glass  into  the  water.  His  pale  face  con- 
tracted from  the  efforts  and  the  eyes  sunk  into  his 
head  while  the  hand  which  held  the  tube  trembled 
and  the  arms  seemed  stiff  and  numb  as  a  stake. 
The  cold,  humid  wind,  which  passed  through  the 
pilot's  jacket  did  not  seem  to  bite  the  frail  figure 
which  was  only  wrapped  In  a  half-buttoned  spring 
coat.  His  eyes  watered  from  the  sea  wind  and 
the  endeavor  to  look  sharply  down  into  the  half- 
impenetrable  element  which  forms  three-quarters 
of  the  earth's  surface,  about  the  life  of  which  the 
other  quarter  generally  knows  so  little  and 
guesses  so  much. 

Through  the  water  telescope,  which  was  not  of 
his  invention,  but  one  he  had  made  from  what  he 
had  heard  from  bridge  builders  and  laborers  in 
marine  blasting,  he  saw  down  Into  a  lower  world 
from  which  the  great  creation  above  the  waters 
had  been  evolved.  The  forest  of  seaweed  which 
had  just  advanced  over  the  border  from  Inorganic 
to  organic  life,  swayed  In  the  cold  bottom  current 
and  resembled  whites  of  eggs  just  coagulated, 
borrowing  their  shape  from  the  surf  and  recall- 
ing frost  flowers,  when  water  freezes  on  the  win- 
dow pane.  Down  In  the  depths  the  kelp  spread 
out  like  big  parks  with  golden  leaves,  over  which 
the  inhabitants  of  the  sea  bottom  dragged  them- 
selves on  their  bellies  seeking  cold  and  obscurity, 
concealing  their  shame  of  being  behind  in  their 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  41 

long  wandering  toward  the  sun  and  air.  Lowest 
down  in  the  clay  the  flounder  rests,  partly  dug 
into  the  ooze,  lazy,  immovable,  without  inventive 
faculty  to  develop  a  swim-bladder  with  which  to 
raise  himself,  waiting  a  happy  chance  that  leads 
the  prey  past  his  nose,  without  the  impulse  of 
turning  the  random  to  his  advantage,  and  from 
pure  laziness  having  twisted  and  stretched  him- 
self until  his  eyes  for  convenience'  sake  have 
stopped  on  the  right  side  of  the  twisted  head. 

The  blenny  has  already  put  one  pair  of  oars 
out  forward,  but  is  loaded  down  by  the  stern  and 
reminds  one  of  the  first  trial  at  boat  building, 
showing  between  the  kelp's  heraldic  foliage  his 
architectonic  stone  head  with  a  Croat's  mustache, 
lifting  himself  a  moment  from  the  mud  to  sink 
again  immediately  into  it. 

The  lump  sucker  with  its  seven  ridges  goes 
with  a  keel  to  the  air,  the  whole  fish  one  enor- 
mous nose,  smelling  only  for  food  and  females, 
lighting  for  a  moment  the  blue-green  water  with 
Its  rose-colored  belly,  spreading  a  faint  aurora 
around  him  down  in  the  gloom,  and  hugging 
again  quickly  a  stone  with  his  sucker  to  await  the 
issue  of  the  millions  of  years,  which  shall  bring 
delivery  to  those  left  behind  in  the  endless  path 
of  evolution. 

The  dreadful  sea  scorpion,  that  fury  incarnate, 
with  malice  expressed  in  the  spines  of  its  face, 


42  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

whose  swimming  limbs  are  claws,  but  more  for 
torturing  than  for  attack  or  defense,  lying  on  one 
side  pining  for  enjoyment,  and  caressing  his  own 
body  with  his  slimy  tail. 

Higher  up  in  lighter  and  warmer  water  swims 
the  handsome  but  profound  thinking  perch,  per- 
haps the  most  characteristic  fish  of  the  Baltic  Sea, 
well  built  and  steady  but  still  somewhat  clumsy  as 
a  Koster  boat,  bearing  the  peculiar  blue-green 
color  of  the  Baltic  and  a  Norseman's  temper,  part 
philosopher  part  pirate,  a  sociable  hermit,  a 
superficial  creature  who  likes  to  seek  the  depths, 
and  sometimes  reaches  them,  idle  and  eccentric. 
He  stands  during  long  leisure  moments  and  stares 
at  the  stones  on  the  beach  until  awakening  he 
darts  off  like  an  arrow,  tyrant  against  his  own 
but  soon  tamed,  returns  willingly  to  the  same 
place,  and  harbors  seven  intestinal  worms. 

And  then  the  eagle  of  the  sea,  the  king  of 
Baltic  fishes,  the  light-built,  cutter-rigged  pike, 
who  loves  the  sun  and,  as  the  strongest,  needs 
not  shun  the  light,  who  stands  with  his  nose  at 
the  surface  of  the  water,  sleeping  with  the  sun  in 
his  eyes,  dreaming  of  the  flowery  fields  and  birch 
pastures  yonder,  where  he  can  never  go,  and  of 
the  thin  blue  cupola  v/hich  arches  over  his  wet 
world,  where  he  would  smother,  and  yet  where 
the  birds  are  swimming  lightly  with  their  feathery 
pectoral-fins. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  43 

The  boat  had  come  between  floating  pieces  of 
ice  which  cast  moving  shadows  over  the  kelp 
parks  on  the  bottom,  like  scattered  clouds.  The 
commissioner,  who  had  searched  several  hours 
without  finding  what  he  sought,  lifted  the  tele- 
scope out  of  the  water,  dried  it  and  laid  it  aside. 

Then  he  dropped  upon  the  stern  sheets  and 
holding  his  hand  before  his  eyes  as  though  to 
rest  them  from  impression,  seemed  buried  in 
sleep  for  some  minutes  after  which  he  gave  the 
pilot  a  signal  to  row  on. 

The  commissioner,  who  had  given  his  atten- 
tion the  whole  forenoon  to  the  depth  seemed  now 
for  the  first  time  to  observe  the  grand  panorama 
which  was  unfolding  on  the  sea  surface.  Ultra- 
marine blue  the  water  segment  extended  some 
distance  ahead  of  the  boat,  until  the  drifting  ice 
showed  a  perfect  artic  landscape.  Islands,  bays, 
coves,  and  sounds  marked  as  on  a  map,  and 
where  the  ice  rode  up  on  the  reef,  mountains  had 
formed,  through  one  block  pressing  down  an- 
other and  the  following  climbing  up  on  the  pre- 
ceding. Over  the  rocks  the  ice  had  likewise  piled 
up,  made  arches,  formed  caves  and  built  towers, 
church-ruins,  casemates,  bastions.  The  enchant- 
ment in  these  formations  lay  in  the  fact  that  they 
seemed  to  have  been  shaped  by  an  enormous  hu- 
man hand,  for  they  had  not  the  unconscious  na- 
ture's  chance   forms,   they   reminded   of  human 


44  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

inventions  in  past  historical  periods.  There  had 
blocl^s  piled  into  Cyclopean  walls,  arranged  them- 
selves in  terraces  as  the  Assyrian-greek  temple, 
here  had  the  waves  through  repeated  impact  dug 
out  a  Roman  barrel  vault,  and  fretted  a  round 
arch,  which  had  sunken  to  an  Arabian  moresque, 
out  of  which  the  sunbeams  and  the  spray  from 
the  waves  had  hacked  out  stalactites  and  bicelles, 
and  here  out  of  an  already  heaped  wall,  the 
whole  wave  front  had  eaten  a  line  of  arches  of  a 
Roman  aqueduct,  there  stood  the  foundation  to  a 
mediaeval  castle,  marking  the  remains  of  tumble 
down  lancet  arches,  flying  buttresses  and  pin- 
nacles. 

This  fluctuation  of  thoughts  between  arctic 
landscapes  and  historicized  architecture  brought 
the  contemplator  into  a  peculiar  frame  of  mind, 
out  of  which  he  was  drawn  by  the  noisy  life  which 
roving  flocks  of  birds  were  making  all  around  on 
floating  islands  of  ice  and  on  the  clear  blue  wa- 
ters. 

In  flocks  of  hundreds  and  hundreds  floated  the 
eider  ducks,  which  were  resting  here,  while  wait- 
ing for  open  water  to  Norrland.  The  insignifi- 
cant rust  brown  females  were  surrounded  by  the 
gorgeous  males,  who  floated  high  with  their  snow 
white  backs,  sometimes  rising  for  a  short  flight, 
exposing  their  soot  black  breasts.  Loons  in  small 
flocks   showing  their  miniver  breasts,   their  rep- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  45 

tile  necks  and  drooping  checkered  wings. 
Legions  of  lively,  long-tailed  ducks  in  black  and 
white,  swimming,  diving,  skimming.  The  guil- 
lemots and  sea  parrots  in  small  bands,  mournful 
coal  black  scoters  in  marauding  parties,  contrast- 
ing with  goosanders  and  red-breasted  mergansers, 
a  more  brilliant  retinue  with  panaches  on  their 
necks,  and  over  the  whole  diving  and  fluttering 
host  of  birds  that  live  an  amphibious  life  hovered 
the  mews  and  gulls,  which  had  already  selected 
the  air  for  their  element,  only  using  the  water  for 
fishing  and  bathing. 

Smuggled  into  this  industrial  world  of  labor, 
on  the  point  half  hidden  sat  a  solitary  crow,  his 
low  brow,  his  doubtful  color,  his  thievish  man- 
ner, his  criminal  type,  great  shyness  for  water, 
and  dirty  look  made  him  an  object  of  hatred  to 
the  strugglers  who  knew  the  nest  plunderer,  the 
egg  sucker. 

From  the  whole  of  this  winged  world,  whose 
throats  could  set  atmospheric  air  in  vibration, 
above  the  heads  of  the  mutes  down  in  the  water, 
was  heard  an  accordant  sound,  from  the  reptile's 
first  faint  trial  to  utter  wrath  by  hissing,  up  to  the 
music  from  the  harmonious  vocal  organs  of  man. 
There  hissed  his  mate  as  a  viper  when  the  eider 
duck  would  bite  her  neck  and  trample  her  under 
the  water,  there  quacked  the  goosander  as  a  frog, 
and  the  terns  shrieked  and  mews  cawed,  the  gulls 


46  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

emitted  childlike  cries,  the  eider  ducks  cooed  as 
male  cats  In  rut  time,  but  highest  over  all  and 
therefore  the  most  charming,  sounded  the  long- 
tailed  ducks'  wonderful  music,  for  as  yet  it  was 
not  a  song.  An  untuned  triad  in  major,  sound- 
ing as  the  herdsman's  horn,  no  matter  how  or 
when  It  struck  in  with  the  three  notes  of  the  others 
making  an  incomplete  accord,  a  canon  for  the 
hunting  horn  without  end  or  beginning,  reminis- 
cences from  the  childhood  of  the  human  race, 
from  the  earliest  ages  of  the  herdsman  and  the 
hunter. 

It  was  not  with  the  poet's  dreamy  fancy,  with 
gloomy  and  therefore  disquieting  feelings  and 
confused  perceptions,  that  the  contemplator  en- 
joyed the  big  drama.  It  was  with  the  calm  of 
the  investigator,  the  awakened  thinker,  that  he 
viewed  the  relations  in  this  seeming  confusion, 
and  it  was  only  through  the  accumulated  vast  ma- 
terial of  recollections  that  he  could  connect  all 
these  objects  viewed  with  each  other.  He 
searched  for  the  causes  of  the  mighty  impression 
of  especially  this  nature,  and  when  he  found  an- 
swers, he  experienced  the  immense  enjoyment  that 
the  most  highly  developed  In  the  chain  of  crea- 
tion must  feel,  when  the  veils  are  lifted  from  the 
occult,  the  bliss  which  has  followed  every  crea- 
ture on  the  infinite  course  toward  light,  and  which 
perhaps  constitutes  the  driving  power  forwards 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  47 

to  knowledge  from  dreaming,  a  bliss  which  must 
resemble  that  of  a  supposed  conscious  creator 
who  is  cognizant  of  what  he  has  done. 

This  landscape  took  him  back  to  Primeval 
Ages,  when  the  earth  was  covered  with  water  and 
the  tops  of  the  highest  mountains  were  beginning 
to  rise  above  the  surface.  These  Islands  around 
him  still  retained  their  primeval  character  with 
the  earliest  formed  crust  of  granite  up  in  day- 
light. 

Down  in  the  water,  where  the  algse  of  the  pe- 
riod of  cooling  appeared,  swam  the  Primary  Age 
fishes  and  among  them  their  oldest  descendant,  the 
herring,  whilst  on  the  islands  still  grew  carbonif- 
erous ferns  and  lichens.  Farther  in  on  the  main- 
land, but  first  on  the  largest  islets,  the  Secondary 
Age's  pines  and  reptiles  would  be  found,  and 
still  farther  in,  the  deciduous  trees  and  mammals 
of  the  Tertiary  Age,  but  out  here  In  primeval 
formation  whimsical  nature  seemed  to  have 
leaped  over  the  stratification  periods  and  thrown 
seals  and  otters  down  in  primeval  times,  casting 
in  the  ice  period  on  the  morning  of  this  day  in 
the  quarto  period,  just  as  soil  on  primitive  rocks, 
and  he  himself  was  sitting  as  a  representative  of 
the  historical  times,  undisturbed  by  the  evident 
confusion,  enjoying  these  living  pictures  of  crea- 
tion and  raising  the  enjoyment  through  feeling 
himself  the  highest  in  this  chain. 


48  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

The  secret  of  the  fascination  of  the  landscape 
was  that  it,  and  only  It  offered  a  historicized 
creation  with  exclusions  and  abbreviations,  where 
one  in  a  few  hours  could  roam  through  the  series 
of  formations  of  the  earth  and  finally  stop  at 
oneself;  where  one  could  refresh  himself  with  a 
resume  of  perceptions,  that  led  the  thoughts  back 
to  the  origin,  resting  in  the  past  stages,  relaxing 
the  fatiguing  tension  to  win  higher  degrees  on  the 
scale  of  culture,  just  as  to  relapse  into  a  whole- 
some trance  and  feel  one  with  nature.  It  was 
such  moments  that  he  used  as  a  compensation 
for  the  past-away  religious  enjoyments,  when 
thoughts  of  heaven  were  only  an  exchanged  shape 
of  incentive  forward  and  the  feeling  of  immor- 
tality was  disguised  uttering  of  the  foreknowl- 
edge of  the  indestructibility  of  matter. 

How  serene  to  feel  oneself  at  home  on  this 
earth,  which  was  delineated  to  him  in  childhood 
as  the  valley  of  lamentation,  which  was  only  to 
be  wandered  through  on  the  way  to  the  unknown; 
how  firm  and  full  of  trust  to  have  gained  knowl- 
edge of  what  was  unknown  before,  to  have  been 
permitted  to  have  seen  into,  to  have  looked 
through  God's  hitherto  secret  counsel,  as  it  was 
called,  all  those  events  which  were  regarded  im- 
penetrable, and  therefore  at  that  time  could  not 
be  penetrated.  Now  man  had  reached  perspicuity 
about  human  origin  and  purpose,  but  instead  of 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  49 

becoming  weary  and  going  to  rest  as  one  cultured 
nation  after  another  have  done  when  they  have 
thought  until  destroyed,  the  now  living  generation 
had  taken  its  part  and  acquiesced  in  finding  them- 
selves to  be  the  highest  animals,  and  exerted 
themselves  in  a  judicious  way  actually  realizing 
the  heaven  idea  here,  therefore  the  -present  time 
was  the  best  and  greatest  of  all  times,  it  has 
carried  humanity  farther  forward  than  centuries 
before  had  been  able  to  do. 

After  these  moments  of  devotional  exercise  in 
thoughts  of  his  origin  and  destiny,  the  commis- 
sioner let  his  mind  run  over  his  personal  evolu- 
tion, as  far  back,  as  he  could  trace  it,  just  as 
though  to  search  for  his  own  self,  and  in  the 
past  stages  read  his  probable  fate. 

He  saw  his  father,  a  deceased  fortification 
major  of  that  undecided  type  of  the  beginning  of 
the  century,  mixed  as  a  conglomerate,  and  ce- 
mented of  fragments  from  preceding  periods, 
picked  at  random  after  the  great  eruption  at  the 
end  of  the  past  century,  believing  in  nothing  be- 
cause he  had  seen  everything  perish,  everything 
taken  up  anew,  all  forms  of  state  tested,  greeted 
with  jubilee  at  reception,  worsted  within  a  few 
years,  brought  forth  again  as  new  and  greeted 
over  again  as  a  universal  discovery,  he  had  at  last 
stopped  at  the  existing  state  as  the  only  palpable, 
It  may  have  come  from  a  leading  will,  which  was 


so  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

improbable,  or  from  a  combination  of  chances 
which  was  tolerably  sure,  but  dangerous  to  say. 
Through  study  at  the  university  his  father  had 
come  into  the  pantheism  of  the  young-Hegelians, 
which  was  a  feint  at  turning  the  current  which  had 
then  reached  its  height,  and  individuals  had 
become  the  only  reality  and  God  became  the  com- 
prehension of  the  personal  in  humanit}'.  The 
living  idea  about  the  intimate  relation  of  man  to 
nature,  that  man  himself  stood  highest  in  line  in 
the  chain  of  the  world's  process,  characterized  an 
elite  corps  of  personalities,  who  silently  despised 
the  repeated  attempts  of  political  visionaries  to 
place  themselves  above  the  governing  laws  of  na- 
ture, trying  in  an  artificial  way  to  make  new  laws 
for  the  world  through  philosophical  systems  and 
congressional  decrees.  Unobserved  they  passed 
on  of  no  use  to  either  high  or  low,  above  they 
saw  mediocrities  through  natural  selection  amass- 
ing around  a  mediocre  monarch,  below  they  found 
ignorance,  credulity  and  blindness,  while  between 
these  two  classes  the  burghers  were  bent  on  busi- 
ness interests  so  positively  that  those  vvho  were  not 
merchants  themselves  were  unable  to  work  to- 
gether with  them.  As  they  were  qualified, 
prudent  and  trustworthy  they  were  occasionally 
promoted  to  positions  of  influence,  but  as  they 
could  not  join  with  any  party  and  had  no  desire 
to  make  a  useless  Individual  opposition  and  were 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  51 

not  numerous  enough  to  form  a  herd,  besides  as 
strong  individualists  would  not  follow  a  bell-cow, 
they  remained  pretty  quiet  carrying  their  discon- 
tent hidden  under  big  crosses  and  decorations  and 
smiled  as  augurs  when  they  met  at  the  coun- 
cilor's table  or  in  the  house  of  noblemen,  letting 
the  world  pass  as  it  might. 

The  father  belonged  to  certainly  not  a  very 
old  noble  family,  but  one  which  through  civil 
merits  in  retrieving  the  mining  business  and  not 
through  doubtful  exploits  of  war  gained  by  the 
help  of  nature's  chances  or  an  enemy's  false  step, 
had  been  rewarded  by  a  coat  of  arms  and  mod- 
erate privileges,  such  as  to  wear  a  nobleman's 
uniform  and  unpaid  to  participate  in  one-fourth 
of  the  ponderous  administration  of  the  country. 
He  counted  himself  therefore  a  meritorious  noble 
and  was  conscious  of  having  come  from  talented 
ancestors,  Vv'hich  acted  as  a  spur  down  to  their 
now  living  representative.  Property  legally  ac- 
quired through  the  qualities  and  labors  of  his 
ancestors  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  perfect 
himself  in  his  calling.  He  became  a  prominent 
topographer,  and  had  participated  in  the  building 
of  Gota  canal  and  in  the  first  railroad  construc- 
tions. This  employment  at  a  whole  kingdom, 
which  he  had  become  used  to  look  at  from  above 
and  to  take  in  at  one  glance  on  the  map  spread 
over  a  writing  table,  gave  his  mind  gradually  the 


52  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

habit  of  seeing  everything  on  a  grand  scale. 
There  he  sat  with  a  rule  opening  communication 
lines  which  would  change  the  whole  physiognomy 
of  the  landscape,  leveling  old  cities  and  creating 
new,  changing  the  prices  of  products,  seeking  for 
new  resources.  The  maps  should  change,  the  old 
water  ways  be  forgotten  and  the  black  straight 
lines  which  indicated  the  new  roads  would  be  the 
determinative.  The  heights  should  be  just  as 
fertile  as  the  valleys,  the  combat  of  the  rivers 
should  cease,  frontiers  between  realms  and  coun- 
tries should  no  more  be  observed. 

There  followed  a  strong  feeling  of  power 
through  this  handling  of  the  fates  of  lands  and 
peoples,  and  he  could  not  escape  gradual  seizures 
of  the  propensity  accompanying  power,  to  over- 
estimate himself.  Everything  miraged  in  a  bird's- 
eye-view,  countries  became  maps  and  human 
beings  tin  soldiers,  and  when  the  topographer  in 
a  few  weeks  ordered  the  leveling  of  a  height, 
which  would  have  needed  thousands  of  years  to 
be  denuded  by  natural  agencies,  he  felt  something 
of  the  creator  in  himself.  When  he  ordered  tun- 
nels bored,  transferred  sand  ridges  to  lakes,  and 
filled  up  marshes,  he  did  not  fail  to  perceive  that 
he  had  taken  in  hand  a  remodeling  of  the  earth 
ball,  throwing  the  natural  geological  formations 
topsy-turvy,  and  therewith  his  personal  feelings 
swelled  incredibly. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  53 

Hereto  was  added  his  position  as  officer  with 
numerous  subordinates,  whom  he  only  communi- 
cated with  as  one  in  authority,  and  who  conse- 
quently were  considered  as  service  muscles  to  his 
big  determining  brain. 

With  a  military's  physical  courage  and  resolu- 
tion, the  profoundness  of  a  savant,  the  full  de- 
liberation of  a  thinker,  the  calm  of  one  financially 
independent,  and  the  dignity  and  self-esteem  of  a 
man  of  honor,  he  exhibited  a  type  of  the  highest 
rank,  where  beauty  and  prudence  combined  to 
produce  a  well-measured,  harmonious  personality. 

In  this  father  the  son  had  both  a  prototype  and 
a  teacher,  the  mother  having  died  early.  To 
spare  the  son  the  bitterness  of  miscalculations, 
and  disapproving  the  whole  current  method  of 
education,  which  with  books  of  tales  and  terrify- 
ing histories,  educated  the  children  to  be  children 
instead  of  men,  he  raised  at  once  the  whole  cur- 
tain of  the  temple  of  life  and  initiated  the  youth  in 
the  difficult  art  of  life;  taught  him  the  intimate 
connection  between  human  beings  and  the  remain- 
der of  the  creation,  where  certainly  the  human  be- 
ing stood  highest  on  his  planet,  but  still  continued 
to  remain  a  part  of  the  creation,  able  in  a  measure 
to  modify  the  action  of  the  forces  in  nature  but 
nevertheless  ruled  by  them,  this  was  a  rational 
nature  worship  if  nature  signifies  everything  ex- 
isting, and  worshiping  is  an  acknowledgment  of 


54  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

the  dependency  of  the  existing  laws  of  nature. 
By  this  he  removed  Christianity's  mania  for  great- 
ness of  individuals,  fear  of  the  unknown,  death 
and  God,  and  created  a  prudent  man,  watchful  of 
his  actions  and  personally  accountable  for  his 
deeds.  The  regulator  of  the  lower  propensities 
of  human  beings  he  found  in  the  organ,  which 
through  its  perfected  form  separates  the  human 
being  from  the  beasts,  the  cerebrum.  Judgment, 
founded  on  liberal  knowledge  should  govern, 
and  when  necessary  suppress  the  lower  propensi- 
ties to  keep  up  a  higher  type.  Nourishment  and 
propagation  were  the  lowest  impulses,  and  there- 
fore in  common  with  the  plants.  The  sensi- 
bilities, as  the  animals'  lower  rudiments  of 
thinking  were  called,  because  they  were  localized 
in  the  arteries,  spinal  cord  and  otlier  lower 
organs,  must  be  absolutely  subordinate  to  the  cer- 
ebrum in  a  human  being  of  the  highest  type,  and 
the  indiv^iduals,  who  could  not  regulate  their 
lower  impulses  but  were  thinking  with  their  spinal 
cord,  were  of  the  lower  form.  Therefore  the 
old  man  warned  against  believing  in  youthful  en- 
chantment and  enthusiasm,  which  could  just  as 
easily  lead  to  crime  as  to  virtue.  This,  however 
did  not  exclude  the  great  passions  of  universal 
benefit,  which  did  not  belong  to  the  feelings  but 
were  powerful  utterances  of  the  will  toward  good. 
AH   that   youth    could   produce   was    completely 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  sS 

worthless,  for  as  a  rule  it  lacked  originality,  being 
only  the  pure  thoughts  of  older  predecessors 
which  the  after-coming  youths  had  taken  up  as 
their  own  and  with  great  gestures  would  spread 
abroad.  Originality  could  only  be  said  to  de- 
velop when  the  brain  had  matured,  just  as  true 
propagation  with  a  following  education  of  the  off- 
spring could  only  take  place  when  man  had 
reached  virility  and  had  the  ability  to  provide 
means  for  existence  and  education  of  the  children. 
A  sure  sign  of  the  immature  brain's  inability  to 
judge  was  the  constant  Grossenwahn,  in  which 
youth  and  women  were  living.  Youth  has  its  fu- 
ture before  it,  as  is  habitually  said,  but  that  asser- 
tion is  shattered  because  manhood  shows  a  less 
per  cent,  of  mortality  than  youth,  and  the  unwitty 
reply  that  if  youth  Is  a  fault  It  passes  away  in 
time,  does  not  overturn  the  precept,  that  youth  Is 
a  present  defect,  an  Imperfection,  thus  a  fault, 
which  is  admitted  by  the  acknowledgment  that  it 
can  pass  away,  for  that  which  never  existed  cannot 
pass  away.  All  youthful  attacks  on  the  existing 
are  hysterical  spells  of  the  inability  of  the  weak  to 
bear  pressure,  an  evidence  of  the  same  lack  of  pru- 
dence as  in  the  hornet  when  attacking  a  human 
being  to  its  own  sure  destruction.  As  a  good  il- 
lustration of  the  want  of  judgment  and  syllogism 
In  the  youths  he  brought  forth  the  book  Robinson 
Crusoe,  which  was  written  for  the  plain  purpose 


56  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

of  showing  the  inferiority  of  a  life  under  natural 
conditions  and  isolation,  and  yet  for  a  century  it 
had  regularly  been  misunderstood  by  youths  as  a 
psalm  to  savage  life  while  the  book  represented  it 
as  a  punishment  for  the  foolish  youth  who  abused 
culture's  wealth  like  a  savage.  This  little  trait 
at  the  same  time  showed  of  how  much  lower  onto- 
logical  form  youth  was,  betraying  it  in  his  sym- 
pathy for  Indians  and  other  rudimentary  laggers- 
behind,  just  as  the  feelings  which  eventually  would 
be  laid  aside,  like  the  thyroid  gland,  which  has 
come  into  disuse  by  human  beings  but  still  remains 
on  its  old  place. 

When  the  son  could  not  refute  these  bitter 
truths  with  rational  arguments,  declaring  that  his 
feelings,  yes  his  most  sacred  feelings,  rose  against 
such  a  dry  tenet,  the  father  declared  him  to  be  a 
hornet  which  was  still  thinking  with  ganglia,  and 
he  warned  him  against  dissolute  fancies,  or  con- 
clusions on  insufficient  ground  and  want  of  great 
material,  not  to  be  mistaken  for  scientific  quick- 
reasoning,  where  from  seemingly  few  premises 
—  appearing  few  because  the  middle  terms  were 
omitted  —  new  conclusions  could  be  drawn,  when, 
as  if  by  a  chemical  union,  two  older  ideas  enter 
each  other  and  form  a  new  thought.  Ontogenism 
had  shown  how  the  human  foetus  was  developed 
through  all  the  earlier  stages  from  the  amoeba 
through  the  frog  and  up  to  the  anthropomorphic, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  57 

how  then  could  the  youth  question  but  that  the 
spirit  of  a  child  must  pass  through  the  history  of 
man  through  the  animal  and  the  savage  upward, 
as  long  as  the  body  was  growing  and  that  conse- 
quently man  stood  far  ahead  of  youth!  He 
warned  him  especially  not  to  let  the  lowest  of  all 
our  propensities,  the  sexual  impulse  cloud  his 
judgment,  for  by  its  power  it  had  so  long  dazzled 
sound  reason,  that  erudite  men  still  bore  the  su- 
perstition that  woman  was  as  high  a  type  as  man, 
yes  even  higher  according  to  the  opinion  of  some 
men,  whereas  she  really  is  but  an  intermediate 
form  between  man  and  child,  as  is  shown  by  the 
foetal  development,  where  the  male  at  a  certain 
stage  is  female  but  the  female  never  male.  To 
warn  the  young  man  of  the  danger  of  being  over- 
powered by  sexual  impulses,  was  the  same  as  to 
cast  a  shadow  on  woman,  and  the  son  soon  com- 
menced to  make  what  the  father  caJled  ganglionic 
conclusions,  the  bearing  of  which  was  that  the 
Lieutenant-Colonel  was  a  woman  hater.  And 
how  could  he  do  otherwise,  when  always  hearing 
his  father  narrating  how  this  or  that  man  had 
thrown  away  his  future  on  affairs  with  women, 
and  how  great  geniuses  had  wasted  their  talents 
by  procreation,  and  sacrificed  happiness  and  posi- 
tion for  a  wife,  who  had  been  faithless  and  chil- 
dren who  died  before  of  mature  age.  Prop- 
agation   was    only    for    the    lesser    spirits,    the 


58  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

greater  ones  should  live  In  their  works,  and  so 
forth. 

Under  such  guidance  the  son  grew  up.  He 
was  born  an  unusually  delicate  child  but  with  a 
harmoniously  developed  body;  he  had  finely  or- 
ganized senses,  quick  and  sure  perception,  keen 
understanding  and  a  nobility  of  mind  which  mani- 
fested Itself  In  forbearance  and  approachableness 
to  mankind.  He  understood  early  how  to  regu- 
late his  life,  to  suppress  the  plant  and  animal  pro- 
pensities, and  when  he  had  accumulated  a  vast 
material  of  observations  and  knowledge,  he  began 
to  work  It  up.  His  brain  soon  showed  its  pro- 
lific capacity —  from  a  couple  of  known  quantities 
to  find  the  wanted  unknown,  from  old  thoughts  to 
produce  new  ones,  In  a  word  the  capacity  of  what 
Is  called  originality.  He  was  the  coming  regene- 
rator and  possessed  ability  to  see  the  inter-rela- 
tions In  disorder,  to  discover  the  Invisible  force 
behind  the  phenomena,  and  even  the  concealed 
and  extremely  compound  motives  In  the  actions 
of  men.  Therefore  his  schoolmates  looked  upon 
him  with  suspicion,  and  the  teachers  discerned  In 
him  a  silent  critic  of  what  they  communicated  as 
unalterable  facts. 

His  arrival  at  the  university  occurred  contem- 
porarily with  the  great  popular  movements  which 
concerned  the  parliamentary  reform.  Borg  per- 
ceived well  the  defects  of  the  representation  by  a 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  59 

four-class  system,  while  the  state  consists  of  at 
least  twenty  classes  with  different  interests  and 
different  abilities  to  judge  in  so  complicated  a 
problem  as  that  of  the  government  of  a  people, 
but  on  the  other  hand  he  could  not  consent  to 
revert  to  the  organization  of  the  hord  or  tribe 
where  everybody  had  equally  much  or  equally 
little  to  say.  He  perceived  at  once  that  this  sim- 
plifying of  the  method  of  governing,  where  the 
multitude  should  do  It  was  not  a  reform  suited  to 
the  needs  of  the  time,  moreover  he  had  lately 
seen  the  right  of  universal  suffrage  In  France  pro- 
duce an  Emperor  and  a  sham  representation  of 
lawyers,  merchants  and  army  officers,  with  the  ex- 
clusion of  laborers,  farmers,  savants  and  scientific 
men,  thus  only  three  classes,  arbitrarily  selected 
by  the  Emperor,  were  represented.  He  had  cal- 
culated that  the  most  correct  would  be  a  perfect 
class  representation  with  proportional  rights  of 
representation,  well  balanced  according  to  the 
Interests  of  the  respective  classes  and  with  due 
consideration  given  to  the  highest  interests,  or 
the  higher  right  of  the  wise  to  own  the  preponder- 
ance, as  they  promote  progress  more  than  the 
ignorant.  This,  to  be  sure,  the  authors  of  the 
two  chamber  systems  had  already  had  in  mind, 
when  they  perceived  the  necessity  of  referring 
questions  to  committees  and  disentangling  certain 
questions   by   special   committees,    even   by   com- 


6o  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

mittees  of  experts.  To  complete  the  assembly, 
so  that  all  interests  would  be  guarded  and  all 
points  taken  and  all  information  of  the  condition 
of  the  realm  made  accessible,  each  class  of  people, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  should  elect  repre- 
sentatives in  proportion  partly  to  their  numbers 
and  partly  to  their  importance  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  country  as  a  whole.  Neglecting  the 
Royal  Court,  which  together  with  the  monarch 
ought  to  be  assorted  under  the  foreign  depart- 
ment, to  which  they  properly  belong,  for  the 
monarch  Is  only  permitted  to  represent  the  nation 
before  foreign  powers,  this  consultative,  though 
not  a  legislative,  class  parliament  would  be  con- 
structed as  follows,  viz.,  First  class :  land  owners 
and  renters,  tenants,  overseers,  foremen  on  farms 
and  so  forth.  The  second  class:  operators  of 
mines  and  quarries,  manufacturers  and  their 
laborers.  Third  class:  merchants,  mariners, 
pilots,  hotel  owners,  porters,  hackmen,  and  all 
employed  in  banks,  custom  houses,  postal  service, 
railroads  and  telegraphs.  Fourth  class:  civil  and 
military  officers,  clergymen,  with  servants,  janitors 
and  privates.  Fifth  class:  savants,  teachers,  lit- 
erateurs,  and  artists.  Sixth  class:  physicians, 
apothecaries,  superintendents  of  poorhouses. 
Seventh  class:  house  owners,  capitalists  and 
rentiers. 

In  what  proportion  to   elect   from   each  class 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  6i 

was  the  question,  which  could  not  be  solved  off 
hand,  but  it  was  necessary  that  skillful  men  with 
knowledge  in  the  science  of  government  should 
probe  the  new  order  of  representation,  which 
would  therefore  only  and  always  be  provisional. 
Over  this  consultative  assembly  should  sit  a 
council  of  specialists  in  the  science  of  government, 
who  had  been  professionally  trained  for  that 
difficult  calling,  so  that  this  most  complicated  of 
all  arts  would  not  be  pursued  by  bunglers  and 
enterprising  amateurs,  as  had  hitherto  been  done, 
and  statesmen's  accession  to  office  would  be  pre- 
ceded by  a  careful  investigation  of  their  past  life, 
their  private  financial  and  social  situation.  This 
would  spur  youth  to  self-education  and  heedful- 
ness  of  what  they  were  doing,  and  would  form  a 
body  of  excellent  men,  while  so  called  irreproach- 
able conduct,  or  negative  virtue,  without  talents 
would  not  as  hitherto  be  the  short  cut  to  advance- 
ment. This  would  constitute  the  new  nobility 
which  would  succeed  the  old  military  and  court 
nobility,  and  the  fact  that  this  nobility  established 
itself  only  through  a  natural  selection  of  the 
fittest  was  a  guarantee  that  the  country  would  be 
ruled  In  the  best  manner.  The  Reichstag  by  only 
having  to  vote  an  opinion,  not  any  decision,  would 
thus  furnish  a  vast  material  of  Investigation,  not  a 
legionary  army  that  could  be  bribed  and  wheedled 
to  commit  voting  outrages. 


62  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

The  young  man,  however,  was  too  prudent  to 
express  his  opinions,  at  a  period,  when  noblemen 
were  synonymous  with  the  degenerated,  left  be- 
hind and  blase,  and  the  masses  were  pushing  so 
blindly  forward  that  the  mechanics  were  the  ones 
that  worked  mostly  into  the  hands  of  their  coming 
class  enemies,  the  peasants;  a  prudent  man  could 
only  smile  and  wait.  And  he  waited  until  he  saw 
the  four-chamber  system  succeeded  by  a  one-class 
representation,  when  the  realm  was  henceforth 
governed  by  the  former  peasantry  alone.  These 
historical  events  had,  however,  a  very  great  in- 
fluence in  directing  the  young  man's  thoughts  and. 
development.  He  had  there  seen  in  what  terrible 
confusion  the  thought  mechanism  of  the  majority 
was,  and  when  he  read  the  protocols  of  the 
Reichstag,  and  noticed  the  speeches  of  the  most 
influential  and  brilliant  speakers,  he  observed  that 
what  he  called  ganglionic  reasoning,  causing  val- 
vular contraction  and  congestion  of  the  heart, 
exerted  the  greatest  influence  on  the  public  opin- 
ion. It  seemed  to  him  sometimes  as  though  it 
was  not  the  question  of  the  fatherland  or  prog- 
ress, but  only  the  motionary's  triumph  to  gain  his 
own  will  by  fallacies,  gross  blunders  in  logic  and 
hideous  distortions  of  facts.  In  him  was  aroused, 
through  observation,  the  great  suspicion  that 
everything  was  intended  as  a  struggle  for  power, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  63 

for  the  enjoyment  of  using  the  power  of  the  brain 
for  putting  other  brains  into  consonance,  of  sow- 
ing seeds  of  thought  in  the  brain  bark  of  others, 
where  they  would  grow  as  parasites  like  the  mis- 
tletoe, while  the  mother  tree  would  proudly  lift 
her  shoulders  at  the  thought  that  the  parasites  up 
in  the  crown  still  were  nothing  but  parasites. 
This  was  the  foundation  of  his  ambition,  to  sat- 
isfy which  required  knowledge  and  experience 
through  study,  travel  and  conversation  with 
learned  and  illustrious  men.  In  the  midst  of  this 
eternally  movable  chaos  of  contending  forces  and 
interests,  he  sought  a  place  of  anchorage  for  his 
being,  the  center  of  the  sphere  which  reality  threw 
around  him  —  in  himself.  Instead  of,  like 
weak  Christians  assuming  an  external  support  In 
God,  he  took  the  real,  palpable  in  his  own  self 
and  sought  to  create  his  personality  to  a  perfect 
type  of  man  whose  life  and  deeds  would  not  vio- 
late anyone's  rights,  convinced  that  the  fruit  of 
a  well-nursed  tree  could  not  fail  to  be  of  use  and 
rejoicing  to  others.  All  the  confusion  and  awk- 
wardness that  he  saw  in  the  struggles  of  those  who 
say  they  are  living  for  others  while  in  reality  they 
only  live  on  others,  on  others'  gratitude,  others' 
opinion  and  others'  acknowledgment,  he  avoided, 
holding  his  own  straight  course  convinced  that  a 
single  great  and  strong  Individual  could  not  help 


64  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

doing  more  good  than  these  masses  of  thoughtless 
people  whose  numbers  stand  in  inverse  ratio  to 
their  usefulness. 

By  this  setting  of  his  ego  he  enforced  a  norm 
for  his  life,  which  led  him  to  a  high  degree  of 
morality,  for,  Instead  of  relinquishing  the  final 
settlement  to  the  uncertain  hereafter,  he  regulated 
his  deeds  so  that  he  had  nothing  left  unsettled,  he 
did  not  shift  the  blame  from  himself  to  an  inno- 
cently suffering  Christ,  but  In  conscious  self-re- 
sponsibility he  committed  no  acts  that  would 
awaken  the  need  of  a  scapegoat. 

Thereby  he  learned  to  rely  only  upon  himself 
and  never  to  take  advice,  always  reflecting  on  the 
probable  consequences  of  an  act.  This  did  not 
prevent  him  from  suffering  with  nervousness  like 
his  generation,  which  was  born  and  brought  up 
during  the  period  of  steam  and  electricity  when 
the  vital  activity  was  Increased  In  speed.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise  considering  that  he  must 
destroy  millions  of  old  brain  cells,  storages  for 
antiquated  impressions,  that  every  moment  when, 
he  would  form  a  judgment,  he  must  carefully  sift 
out  superannuated  axioms,  which  tried  to  come 
forward  as  premises.  It  was  a  work  of  total  re- 
construction which  caused  these  disorders  In  the 
nervous  system  which  are  all  laid  to  our  ancestors' 
alcoholism  and  sexual  excesses,  but  which  patho- 
logical  symptom   was   an   uttering   of   Increased 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  65 

vitality  accompanied  by  extreme  sensibility,  like 
the  craw  fish  when  it  shifts  its  shell,  or  the  bird 
when  molting.  It  was  the  regeneration  of  a 
genus  or  at  least  a  variety  of  man  which  appeared 
to  the  old  as  diseased  or  unsound  because  it  was 
in  a  process  of  development,  something  that  they 
were  disinclined  to  acknowledge  as  they  them- 
selves would  be  the  norm  and  called  themselves 
sound,  although  they  were  in  a  state  of  decomposi- 
tion. 

This  nervous  sensibility  of  the  growing  youth 
was  enhanced  by  moderation  in  eating  and  drink- 
ing, and  vigorous  disciplining  of  the  sexual  desires. 
He  found  it  debasing  to  place  oneself  into  the  un- 
governable state  of  a  lunatic  or  a  savage  through 
the  use  of  fermented  drinks,  and  his  soul  was  far 
too  aristocratic  to  play  a  moment's  illicit  love  with 
a  prostitute.  With  this,  however,  followed  an 
increasing  acuteness  of  the  senses  and  a  sensibil- 
ity to  disagreeable  impressions  which  sometimes 
brought  him  disgust  where  others  of  a  coarser 
nature  would  have   found  enjoyment. 

Thus  he  felt  abased  for  a  few  hours  when  his 
morning  coffee  was  not  strong  enough,  and  a 
poorly  painted  billiard  ball  or  a  soiled  cue  con- 
strained him  to  turn  away  in  search  of  another 
place.  A  badly  wiped  glass  raised  his  loathing 
and  he  felt  the  smell  of  human  being  on  a  news- 
paper which  another  had  read,  while  he  could  on 


66  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

others'  furniture  see  human  grease  deposited  on 
the  polish,  and  he  always  opened  the  window 
when  the  maid  had  arranged  the  room.  How- 
ever, if  he  was  traveling  and  necessity  constrained, 
then  he  could  shut  off,  as  It  were,  all  conduits 
from  his  organs  of  perceptions  and  harden  himself 
against  all  disagreeable  sensations. 

When  he  had  completed  his  studies  at  the  Uni- 
versity, In  natural  science,  that  least  dependent  of 
all  sciences,  because  opinion  plays  a  lesser  roll  than 
a  collection  of  material,  he  received  a  place  as 
assistant  in  the  Royal  Academy  of  Science. 

He  had  applied  for  a  situation  here  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  a  view  of  the  kingdoms  of 
nature,  collected  and  classified  in  one  place,  and 
if  possible  to  read  therein  and  discover  the  great 
connection  If  there  was  any,  or  the  universal  con- 
fusion which  probably  was  there.  His  intentions 
soon  became  manifest,  especially  when  he  could 
no  longer  avoid  the  danger  of  their  enticing  from 
him,  his  project  to  classify  the  birds  after  an  en- 
tirely different  method  than  the  current  one.  The 
professors,  who  of  course  did  not  want  to  be  low- 
ered to  collectors  of  material  for  a  young  man, 
and  were  not  willing  to  become  obsolete  with  their 
works,  took  an  instinctive  aversion  to  the  scru- 
tlnlzer.  The  first  obstacle  to  the  Intruder  was 
made  by  placing  him  to  detail  work  of  a  subordi- 
nate character  which  was  disgusting  to  his  sense 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  67 

of  beauty,  during  six  months  he  had  to  change 
alcohol  In  the  fish  collection;  at  first  he  was  retch- 
ing from  the  nauseating  odor,  but  after  he  had 
overcome  this  disagreeable  perception  he  turned 
furiously  to  the  study  of  the  fishes,  and  as  he 
worked  rapidly  he  had  inside  of  the  half  year 
thoroughly  studied  the  great  material.  He  had 
been  standing  the  whole  winter  In  a  cold,  dirty 
and  semi-dark  kitchen  where  he  had  been  smelling 
bad  alcohol,  frozen  his  hands  and  contracted  a 
severe  chronic  cystitis. 

Afterwards  he  was  set  to  writing  labels  for  the 
algse.  As  he  had  received  no  Instructions  in  cal- 
ligraphy at  the  University  and  by  nature  he  had 
a  weak,  unsteady  hand,  all  the  labels  were  dis- 
carded and  he  gained  the  name  of  being  useless. — 
He  could  not  even  write. —  But  in  two  months, 
during  which  time  he  attended  a  writing  school, 
and  in  the  evenings  sat  at  home  over  writing  book 
and  copy,  he  acquired  a  beautiful  and  legible  hand 
and  at  the  same  time  gained  a  more  complete 
knowledge  of  the  algse  than  he  had  before,  while 
into  the  bargain  he  learned  the  inestimable  art  of 
penmanship.  The  professors  who  had  thought 
he  would  reject  such  subordinate  work  soon  saw 
what  kind  of  grit  he  had  and  that  he  understood 
how  to  use  all  adversities  for  his  benefit,  Increas- 
ing his  knowledge  while  turning  aside  softly  from 
the  leash  and  warding  off  the  blows. 


68  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

His  Improved  penmanship  was  to  be  a  new 
source  of  humiliations,  for  he  was  now  placed  at 
copying  office  records  and  letters,  sinking  finally, 
as  they  believed,  to  an  ordinary  copyist's  role. 
Without  complaining  he  took  the  occupation  and, 
at  the  same  time  learning  foreign  languages,  he 
had  the  opportunity  of  glancing  into  the  secrets 
of  all  these  great  men,  which  they  thought  would 
be  worthless  to  him.  Thus  he  saw  the  scientific 
questions  of  the  period,  debated  through  corre- 
spondence and  he  discovered  the  ways  to  the  secret 
meetings  of  learned  societies,  gained  knowledge 
about  the  subterranean  passages  to  distinction,  and 
the  opportunities  to  make  his  investigations  fruit- 
ful. Thus  he  was  unassailable,  and  just  as  they 
believed  they  had  crushed  him  he   arose   again. 

It  was  owing  to  this  double  quality  of  nobleman 
and  Independent  thinker,  that  he  became  isolated. 
His  name  did  not  sound  scientific  and  his  fine  and 
modern  way  of  dressing  was  taken  as  a  proof  of 
unscientific  sense  by  those  who  remembered 
Berzellus'  ragged  pants;  his  patient  and  apparent 
submission  was  taken  as  inferiority,  and  all  his 
meditations  over  science,  as  poetical  effusions. 
Regretting  to  have  let  him  come  behind  the  cur- 
tain, and  in  order  to  press  him  down  again  they 
now  placed  him  at  another  work  which  had  been 
rejected  by  every  newcomer,  and  was  called  the 
proving  stone.     There  was  In  the  garret  a  rem- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  69 

nant  collection  of  stones  and  minerals,  which  had 
come  together  partly  through  gifts  and  legacies 
and  partly  through  circumnavigations  and  explora- 
tions, and  as  most  of  it  had  been  discarded  as 
duplicates,  at  a  time  when  geology  was  in  its 
infancy,  increasing  knowledge  demanded  that  they 
again  be  overhauled  and  assorted.  They  were 
placed  in  an  attic  room  beneath  the  rooftiles  and 
lay  in  a  big  heap  decidedly  covered  with  dust  and 
cobwebs.  Borg  who  must  now  stand  bent  be- 
neath the  heated  rooftiles  and  inhale  the  dust,  was 
about  to  give  it  up,  but  when  on  the  second  day 
he  found  a  new  mineral  which  he  suspected  to  be 
unknown,  he  at  once  applied  himself  to  the  work 
and  started  classifying.  During  this  he  made 
observations  which  shook  his  already  faint  belief 
in  the  whole  system  of  the  science,  and  he  com- 
menced seeing  that  the  stones  were  not  classified 
by  nature  but  it  was  the  brain  that  classified  the 
phenomena.  Besides,  everything  might  be  classi- 
fied if  one  could  only  decide  upon  a  basis  of  di- 
vision, and  he  soon  saw  that  the  basis  employed 
here  was  not  the  most  rational  one,  the  very 
foundation  being  an  unsettled  hypothesis;  for  in- 
stance, that  the  primitive  rocks  had  been  formed 
through  melting  by  fire,  contrasting  with  the 
stratified  rocks  which  were  positively  regarded  as 
deposited  in  water;  but  some  of  the  primitive 
rocks  were  also  stratified  like  the  younger  sedi- 


70  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

mentary  formations;  then  he  found  that  all  of  It 
was  twisted  and  guessed  at  and  the  whole  system 
founded  on  guess  work.  In  the  meanwhile  he 
had  analyzed  his  mineral  and  found  that  It  was 
hitherto  unknown,  whereupon  he  gave  it  to  the 
professor  who  sent  it  to  the  Berlin  Academy  and 
got  his  name  attached  to  the  new  mineral.  Borg 
received  no  thanks,  no  mention,  only  a  few  taunt- 
ing words  from  the  professor.  Irritated  thereby 
he  undertook  himself  to  describe  the  next  mineral 
which  he  found  to  be  new  and  sent  it  to  Lyell;  his 
paper  was  read  In  the  Geological  Society,  of  which 
he  was  made  a  member.  Comrades  and  superiors 
pretended  to  be  ignorant  of  his  success,  which  was 
in  a  measure  disparaging  to  the  professor  who 
had  overlooked  the  unknown  mineral,  and  now 
repugnance  grew  Into  hate  which  developed  to 
persecution.  But  he  turned  aside,  made  himself 
invisible  and  worked.  This  collection  of  minerals 
being  gathered  from  all  countries  In  Europe,  and 
as  Borg  understood  how  to  give  to  each  discovery 
a  touch  of  direct  usefulness  for  the  science  of 
mining  in  the  respective  countries,  he  succeeded  In 
two  years  to  gain  membership  in  most  of  the 
learned  societies  of  Europe,  and  v/as  decorated 
with  badges  of  the  Italian  Crown  Order,  the 
French  "  Instruction  publique,"  the  Austrian  Leo- 
pold order  and  the  Russian  St.  Annae  order, 
second    class.     But    nothing    availed    among   his 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  71 

surroundings,  and  the  laughter  increased  at  each 
mark  of  distinction  which  was  nevertheless  mer- 
ited. When  they  could  not  deny  the  facts,  they 
underrated  their  value  or  pretended  to  be  ig- 
norant of  what  had  happened,  which,  however, 
did  not  prevent  them  from  using  his  trodden  path 
in  their  own  hunt. 

When  at  last  after  seven  years  of  tormenting 
service  he  inherited  a  legacy  from  his  father,  who 
had  died,  and  he  retired  from  service  to  travel 
abroad  as  a  private  man,  he  heard  alternately 
that  he  had  failed  in  his  calling  and  that  it  was  a 
pity  that  he  did  not  become  anything,  or  that  he 
had  been  discharged  from  office.  It  was  with 
boundless  disdain  for  human  beings  that  he  left 
his  country  to  continue  his  studies  abroad.  In 
hotels  and  pensions  all  over  Europe  he  met  many 
kinds  of  people  with  whom  he  formed  acquaint- 
ances which  were  soon  broken  by  circumstances. 
But  everywhere  he  saw  how  people  of  the  same 
period  expressed  the  same  mind  about  the  same 
things,  pronounced  the  opinion  of  the  majority 
as  their  own,  spoke  phrases  in  place  of  thoughts, 
and  he  discovered  thereby  that  It  really  was  the 
thoughts  of  a  few  spirits  that  were  ruminated  by 
the  masses.  Thus  he  found  that  all  geologists 
spoke  Agassiz'  and  Lyell's  ideas  from  1830  and 
'40,  all  religious  free  thinkers  exhaled  Renan  and 
Strauss,  all  brisk  politicians  were  living  on  Mill 


72  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

or  Buckle,  and  all  who  spoke  up-to-date  literature 
cast  up  Taine.  It  was  then  only  a  few  main  bat- 
teries which  had  an  annunciator  and  which  could 
through  the  conducting  wires  from  their  talents 
set  all  the  small  bells  tinkling.  Through  this  he 
soon  came  to  the  domain  of  psychology,  visited 
spiritualists,  hypnotlzers  and  mind  readers,  saw 
behind  these  swindles  some  new  discoveries  which 
would  surely  change  humanity  in  its  mode  of  liv- 
ing thoughtlessly  as  cattle,  perhaps  contribute 
towards  adjusting  the  thought  mechanism,  and 
show  that  this  whole  battle  about  opinions  is  only 
a  strife  for  the  power  to  set  other  people's  brains 
in  motion,  to  force  the  masses  to  think  as  I.  He 
had  been  a  witness  to  scientific  encounters  which 
had  resulted  in  a  conquest  for  the  wrong  opinion, 
only  because  the  victor  had  sufficient  authority 
and  was  supported  by  a  majority.  He  had  seen 
political  and  religious  combats  and  In  a  legisla- 
tion directly  contrary  to  sound  reason  and  justice, 
founded  on  approved  errors,  which  were  inher- 
ited by  succeeding  generations  as  self-evident 
truths. 

Yes,  surely  it  concerned  only  how  to  make  one's 
own  will  valid,  and  the  whole  driving  power  be- 
hind the  vindication  of  opinions  were  interest  and 
passion.  Interest,  it  was  nothing  else  than  need, 
a  need  of  food  and  love,  and  to  gain  these  re- 
quired a  certain  amount  of  power.     Whoever  did 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  (jj 

not  strive  for  power  was  a  weak  one,  whose  desire 
of  life  was  attenuated,  therefore  the  weak  was 
always  heard  to  demand  rights,  the  rights  of  the 
weak,  while  there  was  only  a  mathematical  justice 
given,  an  arithmetical  truth,  for  the  calculating  of 
which  was  required  a  strong  mind  capable  of 
emancipating  itself  from  the  delusions  of  interest 
and  passions.  When  he  searched  his  inner  self 
and  compared  himself  with  a  great  many  others, 
he  found  that  through  a  strict  self-education  he 
had  freed  his  judgment  to  a  high  degree,  and  that 
in  him  was  a  specially  developed  thrift  to  seek 
abstract  justice,  that  truth  which  consists  in  the 
actual  conditions,  the  pith  of  fact,  why  he  called 
himself  a  friend  of  truth  In  the  highest  sense,  al- 
though not  prompted  thereby  to  tell  all  his 
thoughts  abroad  nor  prevented  from  replying  to 
importunate  questions,  when  need  be,  with  a 
prevarication. 

In  order  to  trace  more  closely  the  organization 
of  the  man-brute  he  designed  a  special  study  of 
the  mental  faculties  of  all  the  lower  animals  and 
thus  guided  himself  up  to  man.  He  then  made 
a  ledger  over  all  the  Individuals  that  came  in  his 
way,  from  relatives,  nurses,  maids,  to  school- 
mates, university  comrades,  society  friends  and 
superiors,  in  one  word  all  who  came  within  the' 
circle  of  his  observation.  This  he  completed 
through  a  collection  of  personalia,  baptismal  cer- 


74  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

tificates,  and  the  testimonies  of  their  acquaint- 
ances; he  wrote  down  their  equation  and  tried  a 
solution  of  the  problem  of  their  life.  It  was  an 
incredible  amount  of  working  material.  When  he 
had  straightened  out  the  confusion  he  saw  that 
the  human  beings  could  be  divided  just  as  the  ani- 
mals and  plants  into  large  classes,  orders  and 
families  according  to  the  basis  chosen.  By  tak- 
ing several  bases  he  came  pretty  near  to  the  truth 
and  threw  the  fullest  illumination  upon  the  object 
of  his  observation. 

Among  other  things  he  made  a  diagram  of  the 
human  beings,  with  three  subdivisions,  conscious, 
self-deceivers  and  unconscious.  The  conscious  or 
initiated  stood  highest,  had  discerned  the  deceit 
and  believed  in  nothing  and  nobody,  and  were 
usually  called  skeptics,  feared  and  hated  by  the 
self-deceivers,  but  recognized  each  other  at  once 
and  usually  parted  with  the  word  rascal,  and 
reciprocal  accusations  of  bad  motives.  As  self- 
deceivers  he  counted  all  religious  believers,  hyp- 
notic mediums,  prophets,  party  chiefs,  politicians, 
charity  spirits,  and  the  whole  swarm  of  weak  am- 
bitious ones  who  pretend  to  live  for  others.  To 
the  unconscious  belonged  children,  most  crim- 
inals, most  women  and  some  idiots,  all  of  whom 
still  live  on  the  semi-mammalian  plane  without  the 
ability  to  distinguish  between  subject  and  object. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  751 

Proceeding  from  another  basis,  or  by  ontogen- 
esis from  the  foetus  up  to  the  highest  standard  of 
man,  he  got  as  the  result,  children,  youths,  women, 
and  men. 

He  also  used  to  search  among  his  countrymen 
for  ancestral  race  marks,  distinguished  the  cen- 
tral Swedes  from  the  southern  Swedes,  could  see 
the  Norwegian  in  the  Vermlanders  and  Bohus- 
landers,  pointed  out  the  Finn  in  some  of  the 
Norrlanders,  kept  record  of  immigrated  Germans, 
Wallons,  Shemites  and  gypsies,  which  often  gave 
him  the  key  to  various  traits  in  otherwise  Inex- 
plicable characters. 

He  also  had  another  basis  for  a  division  of 
characters  according  to  the  dominant,  as  he  called 
it,  and  he  got  the  nutritive  as  the  lowest  group 
Including  epicures,  drunkards  and  the  avaricious, 
the  sexuallc  or  licentious,  the  affective  or  sensi- 
tive, and  the  Intellectual  or  thinkers  who  stood 
highest. 

This  science  he  developed  to  a  high  degree,  and 
after  some  time  acquired  the  ability  to  judge  hu- 
man beings  and  give  their  equations.  To  verify 
the  truth  of  his  observations  he  used  himself  as  a 
psychological  preparation,  cut  himself  up  bodily, 
experimented  with  himself  and  grafted  fistulas  and 
fontanelles,  subjecting  himself  to  unnatural  and 
often  repulsive  spiritual  diet,  but  carefully 
guarded  faults  of  observation,  and  avoided  form- 


76  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

Ing  a  norm  for  others  by  his  own  sayings  and 
doings. 

When  he  had  finally  become  weary  of  traveling 
abroad,  and  his  soul  was  longing  for  its  milieu,  he 
returned  home  to  seek  a  sphere  of  activity.  As 
it  was  Immaterial  to  him  what  his  occupation 
might  be  he  applied  for  the  position  of  fish  com- 
missioner. As  they  were  not  anxious  to  have  him 
too  near  he  was  appointed  as  the  first  man  of  the 
inlet  to  Stockholm. 

Here  he  awoke  from  the  review  of  his  evolu- 
tion, from  which  he  used  to  regenerate  himself  by 
hastily  living  his  life  over  again,  thereby  tracing, 
as  it  were,  his  standpoint  and,  calculating  his 
resources,  he  cleared  his  course  onward  to  his 
probable  destiny  and  his  prospects  of  succeeding 
in  his  enterprises. 

The  pilot,  who  in  the  meantime  had  rowed  the 
boat  behind  the  rocks  and  in  lee  of  the  ice  cakes, 
had  already  decided  that  the  Doctor,  who  was  sit- 
ting with  Introverted,  expressionless  eyes,  was  a 
little  freaky,  took  the  occasion  to  ask  if  they 
should  turn  toward  the  harbor,  whereto  the  com- 
missioner nodded  consent. 

Once  more  he  glanced  at  the  magnificent  pan- 
orama yonder,  where  the  ice  floes  were  driven 
onward,  rent  asunder,  packed  themselves,  crowded 
together,  pushed  over  each  other,  turned  on  edge, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  77 

changed  their  horizontal  position  to  big  upheavals 
and  tilting  of  the  strata,  forming  mountains,  dales 
and  hills.  It  seemed  to  him  as  though  he  beheld 
the  earth's  crust  being  born,  when  on  the  incan- 
descent sea  the  first  hard  cake  was  broken  to 
pieces,  driven  forward,  pushed  on  edge,  piled  in 
heaps  to  form  the  primitive  mountains,  skerries, 
rocks,  islets,  which  were  but  enormous  packs  of 
ice,  icebergs,  although  formed  from  another  min- 
eral than  water.  Over  this  repetition  of  the 
history  of  creation  vibrated  the  primitive,  undi- 
vided white  light  of  the  ice  beside  the  deep  blue 
of  air  and  water,  the  first  breaking  of  the  dark- 
ness, and  here  the  God  of  the  saga  of  creation 
who  separated  light  from  darkness,  came  forth  as 
a  sensible  explanation  to  his  investigating  mind. 
Once  again  the  first  attempt  at  harmonious 
sounds  of  the  reptiles,  now  transformed  Into  birds, 
rang  out  over  the  watery  circle,  the  limitation  of 
himself,  which  must  be  the  center  wherever  he 
went.  .  .  . 

The  boat  floated  into  harbor,  the  smoke  was 
rising  from  the  chimneys,  It  was  dinner  time. 


CHAPTER  FOURTH 

One  Sunday  forenoon  the  fish  commissioner  sat 
at  his  open  window;  the  early  summer  had  just 
come,  there  was  a  hght  blue  color  on  the  water 
and  a  faint  verdure  in  the  crevices  of  the  rocks, 
on  the  insignificant  remains  of  lichens  and  mosses. 
The  flocks  of  birds  had  gone  north  and  only  seg- 
regated pairs  of  eider  ducks  were  swimming,  two 
by  two,  in  the  coves.  The  great  solitude,  as  he 
called  the  Baltic  Sea,  impressed  him  this  day  as 
he  saw  one  vessel  after  another  steering  south- 
ward under  foreign  flags  with  lively  colors,  per- 
haps coming  accidentally,  perhaps  regularly,  all 
of  these  flags  more  luminous  than  the  poor  blue 
and  tawny  yellow  which  is  so  easily  soiled.  He 
saw  the  exciting  tricolor  on  a  brig  which  was 
lumber  laden  from  Norrland,  where  it  had  re- 
cently been  with  wine  and  oranges  and  was  now 
passing  down  to  more  sunny  and  populous  coasts. 
The  enfeebled  dannebrog  on  a  butter  schooner  lay 
in  the  wake  of  a  great  German  mail  steamer  car- 
rying white  bunting  with  mourning  border  and  the 
Crown  mark  like  the  ace  of  spades,  above  some- 
thing of  red  color.     England's  blood  red  standard, 

78 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  79 

the  Spanish  awning  cloth,  America's  King  cotton 
ticking,  each  of  these  was  a  greeting  from  so  many- 
foreign  nations  to  which  he  felt  more  affianced 
than  to  those  strangers  whom  he  was  condemned 
to  call  countrymen,  for  he  had  a  right  to  carry 
all  of  these  colors  on  his  gala  coat  but  not  his 
own  country's.  And  to-day,  it  seemed,  these  re- 
minders of  his  cosmopolitan  citizenship  came  to 
him  more  invigorating  than  usual,  as  during  the 
last  few  days  of  his  exile  in  this  place  he  had 
been  surrounded  by  a  full  and  open  enmity.  He 
had  recently  undertaken  to  enforce  a  law  adopted 
several  years  ago,  though  never  applied,  about  a 
certain  measure  of  the  meshes  In  nets  and  seines, 
and  had  thereby  encountered  an  opposition  and 
open  defiance  which  finally  forced  him  to  send  for 
the  sheriff  who  confiscated  the  nets.  He  had, 
however,  first  shown  thoroughly  how  the  inter- 
ference of  the  government  was  only  prompted  by 
concern  for  the  welfare  of  the  people,  he  had  held 
before  them  how  they,  while  not  wishing  to  di- 
vide a  farm,  preferring  to  have  one  son  prosper- 
ous and  the  family  maintalner,  still  contrived,  by 
Indiscriminate  fishing,  to  make  their  children  de- 
pendent of  the  almshouse  for  their  support.  All 
to  no  avail.  All  these  measures  and  steps  were 
regarded  as  the  evil  contrivance  of  a  pack  of  Idle 
officers  who  were  salaried  with  the  people's 
money,    for   the    special   purpose    of   tormenting 


So  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

them.  He  retorted  in  vain,  that  it  was  the  farm- 
ers in  the  Reichstag  who  had  voted  this  law, 
whereupon  the  fishermen  turned  their  hate  to- 
wards the  farmers  and  government  ahke. 

He  observed  that  these  fishing  people  really 
represent  a  remnant  of  the  aboriginal  community, 
careless  and  inconsiderate,  without  the  peasant's 
forethought  for  the  morrow  and  next  year. 
They  were  like  the  savage  who  hunts  two  days 
and  sleeps  eight,  and  like  the  savage  they  pos- 
sessed certain  negative  faculties  to  do  without,  and 
endure,  but  lacked  the  positive  ability  to  improve 
their  situation  through  investigation,  having  a 
decided  and  instinctive  dislike  for  innovation, 
thereby  betraying  their  inability  to  adapt  them- 
selves to  a  higher  stage  of  culture.  All  these 
fishermen  were  bottom  sediments  of  the  country's 
population;  when  the  battle  over  fertile  river  val- 
leys and  lake  margins  was  going  on  they  could 
not  maintain  their  own,  and  fled  or  were  pressed 
out  to  the  headlands  where  the  soil  ceased  and 
only  the  uncertain  water  left  its  winnings.  Like 
gamblers  they  were  as  unreliable  as  fortune,  un- 
scrupulous in  their  dealings,  drawing  small  ad- 
vances beforehand  from  the  ever  expected  great 
fishing,  which  a  lucky  shipwreck  might  bring  them. 
Therefore  their  hate  Immediately  kindled  to- 
wards the  new  comer,  and  In  their  blindness  they 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  8i 

could  not  see  how  he  would  if  from  ambition  only 
improve  their  condition  and  free  them  from  labor. 
For  instance,  one  duty  of  the  head  pilot  was  to 
make  meteorological  reports;  for  him  he  had  con- 
structed a  self-regulating  wind  measure  from 
cleft  sardine  boxes,  which,  however,  was  not  ac- 
cepted but  placed  in  the  garret.  He  had  offered 
to  assist  in  cases  of  sickness  but  had  been  rejected. 
He  had  offered  to  teach  the  wives  how  to  prevent 
the  stoves  from  smoking,  by  the  application  of  a 
stromling  barrel  as  a  flue  at  the  top  of  the  chim- 
ney, but  they  had  made  grimaces  at  him  and  con- 
tinued to  lament  over  the  irremediable  smoke. 
He  would  teach  a  fisherman,  who  had  tried  to 
raise  potatoes  unsuccessfully,  how  to  fertilize  the 
sandy  strand  with  seaweed  and  the  refuse  from 
fish,  as  he  had  seen  the  people  on  the  coast  of 
England  do  with  marked  success;  all  was  in  vain. 
When  he  saw  how  the  surplus  of  the  big  strom- 
ling fishing  of  the  spring  lay  decaying  for  lack  of 
salt,  he  would  teach  them  the  Faroe-islanders' 
method  of  salting  with  the  ashes  of  seaweed  in 
case  of  necessity  and  for  domestic  use,  this  same 
preservative  being  alv/ays  used  by  said  islanders 
in  the  manufacture  of  cheese. 

The  result  of  all  his  endeavors  to  teach  them 
useful  things,  was  that  he  received  the  nickname 
of  Doctor  Know-all,  was  regarded  as  a  fool,  and 


82  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

became  the  laughing  stock  of  the  coffee  gather- 
ings, and  drinking  bouts.  Even  the  children 
made  faces  as  he  passed  by. 

The  incongruity  between  what  he  was,  and 
what  he  was  taken  to  be,  impressed  him  at  the 
beginning  as  comical,  but  afterwards  when  the 
hostilities  succeeded  the  coldness  he  marked  an 
unfavorable  influence  on  his  mental  state.  It  was 
as  though  a  thundercloud  of  unequal  electricities 
hung  over  him,  irritating  his  nerve  current,  trying 
to  annihilate  it  through  neutralization.  He  felt 
as  though  the  thoughts  directed  towards  him 
from  these  many  would  have  the  power  to  grad- 
ually drag  him  down,  cramp  his  opinion  of  his 
own  value,  so  that  the  moment  would  come  when 
he  could  no  longer  rely  upon  himself  and  his 
mental  superiority,  and  finally  their  views  that 
he  was  the  idiot  and  they  the  sound  would  grasp 
his  brain  and  force  him  to  agree  with  them. 

Meanwhile  as  his  thoughts  y/andered  here  and 
there  a  new  object  came  within  the  forty-five  de- 
grees of  the  horizon,  which  he  commanded  at  a 
glance  from  his  window.  A  gunboat  came  to 
lee  of  the  rock  at  half  speed,  clewed  up  its  sails 
and  dropped  anchor.  Through  the  marine  glass 
he  saw  the  sailors  move  about  apparently  in  a 
hurly-burly,  but  without  crowding;  each  one  hur- 
ried to  his  belaying  pin,  his  line,  and  his  halyard, 
when    the    executive    officer's    whistle    sounded. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  83 

The  vessel's  straight  sides,  the  extended  stem 
where  the  iron  plates  seemed  to  sprawl  asunder 
but  combined  their  concentrated  force  in  a  for- 
ward direction,  radiating  out  as  it  were  at  the 
bowsprit,  the  exhaust  pipe  and  the  smokestack's 
energetic  smoking,  the  masts  striving  with  stay 
and  shroud,  the  round  circle  of  the  cannon's 
mouth,  everything  Indicated  an  array  of  forces, 
regulated,  curbing  each  other,  reacting  and  coop- 
erating, the  contemplation  of  which  put  him  into 
a  harmonic  state  of  mind.  It  was  to  him  as 
though  power  and  order  streamed  forth  from  the 
wedge-shaped  iron  hull,  where  purpose,  limitation 
and  measure,  united  Into  a  unit  of  beauty,  and 
conveyed  a  deeper  enjoyment  by  reflection  than 
a  handsome  work  of  art  commonly  affords  the 
superficial  observer  by  the  way  of  feeling. 

Something  else  came  to  him  through  reflecting 
on  this  little  floating  community  surrounded  by 
water.  He  felt  strengthened,  as  though  he  had 
a  support  in  this  symbol  of  power,  that  was 
authorized  by  the  people's  assembly  and  the  royal 
government,  with  the  appliance  of  all  the  means 
of  culture  and  science,  and  which  protected  the 
higher  developed  against  the  pressure  of  bar- 
barism from  beneath;  he  saw  with  satisfaction 
how  a  couple  of  the  most  knowing,  who  had  been 
qualified  by  due  examinations,  guided  with  a  whis- 
tle this  hundred  of  half  savages,   who   did   not 


84  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

dare  to  pretend  to  understand,  that  which  they 
did  not  understand.  He  had  never  been  be- 
guiled to  commit  the  modern  fault  of  observation 
of  believing  that  the  lower  classes  suffered  from 
their  subordinate  position  and  coarse  food.  He 
knew  well  that  they  were  precisely  on  the  plane 
they  should  be,  and  that  they  suffered  just  as 
little  from  their  station  as  the  fishes  beneath  would 
suffer  from  not  having  been  developed  into  am- 
phibians, and  as  far  as  their  coarse  food  was 
concerned  he  knew  from  experience  when  he  had 
invited  a  few  fishermen  to  dinner  how  they  re- 
jected all  but  that  which  filled  the  belly;  yes,  he 
had  seen  them  select  the  poor  rye  in  the  bread 
basket,  instead  of  the  fine  wheat.  He  had  never 
believed  in  the  talk  about  lack  of  food  excepting 
when  misfortune  came  and  then  only  accidentally, 
for  there  existed  state  laws  for  the  poor  which 
are  so  often  misused  by  sluggards  and  the  shrewd, 
who  feign  sickness  and  force  the  community  to 
support  them.  He  had  never  adored  the  small, 
never  needed  to  kneel  to  the  insignificant,  not- 
withstanding that  he  himself  was  cast  out  from 
the  upper  camp  which  during  the  common  period 
of  decay  tricked  itself  up  with  stolen  reputations 
and  lay  pressing  down  that  which  should  grow. 
He  did  not  even  now  let  this  induce  him  to  over- 
estimate this  approximate  picture  of  the  upper 
stratum,  which  in  the  shape  of  a  man-of-war  in- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  85 

spired  his  admiration  from  a  certain  point  of 
view,  but  on  the  other  hand  was  a  reminder  of  a 
system  of  state,  which  executed  outrages  on  the 
minds  with  compressed  gas  and  Bessemer  cyhn- 
ders. 

Downstairs  his  host's  door  banged,  and  the 
tongues  began  to  wag  at  the  entrance  of  Oman, 
whose  net  had  been  confiscated.  The  gin  glasses 
rang  and  the  clamor  rose  at  the  repetition  of  yes- 
terday's drunken  spree. 

"  Idiots  and  destroyers  of  the  people,  who  be- 
lieve they  know  more  than  sensible  fishermen  and 
who  lie  on  the  sofa  and  read  books,  and  get  two 
thousand  a  year,  snots,  who  would  teach  their 
father  how  to  fish,  a  pack  of  thieves  and  cigar- 
ette heroes  who  go  about  with  sow's  tails  under 
their  noses  .  .   ." 

And  now  a  wave  broke  against  Vestman's  eluci- 
dation of  facts  that  he  had  gleaned  on  board  the 
*'  Jacob  Bagge  "  about  the  commissioner's  ex- 
traction, his  father's  Irregular  sexual  relations, 
his  mother's  low  descent,  and  he  alluded  to  the 
commissioner's  discharge  from  his  first  office  and 
so  forth. 

The  listener  tried  to  make  himself  deaf,  and 
indifferent  as  usual,  but  the  words  cut  him,  soiled 
him,  hurt  him  against  his  will.  Old  doubts  about 
his  father's  integrity  began  to  awaken,  doubts  of 
his  own  value  were  aroused  and  fears  as  to  the 


86  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

possibility  of  keeping  himself  dry  in  this  rain  of 
mud,  and  to  avoid  a  fight  where  he  perhaps  would 
fail  from  nicety  in  choice  of  weapons. 

Now  struck  the  bell  on  the  man-of-war,  a  drum 
whir  rolled,  and  the  summer  wind  carried  the 
tunes  of  a  hymn  from  a  hundred  throats  out  over 
the  water,  solemn,  rhythmically  arranged,  sub- 
missive, all  while  the  clamor  and  threats  from 
downstairs  rumbled  as  from  the  cages  in  a 
menagerie,  and  in  the  psalm's  ferment  rose  to  a 
howl,  for  a  quarrel  had  arisen  between  the  par- 
ties, at  the  question  of  taking  back  the  net  by 
force. 

The  commissioner,  who  regarded  churches  as 
archeological  collections  or  interesting  pagoda 
buildings  from  past  times  was  reminded  involun- 
tarily of  the  utterance  which  a  young  clergyman 
let  fall  one  night  when  at  a  discussion  of  the 
Christian  cult. 

"  I  do  not  believe  in  Christ's  divinity  and  all 
that,  but  believe  me,  the  mob  must  be  scared!  " 
"  The  mob  must  be  scared,"  repeated  he  to  him- 
self silently,  but  dropped  the  thread  immediately 
when  he  heard  the  fray  break  out  downstairs. 
iChairs  were  knocked  over,  heels  were  braced  and 
kicked  against  the  furniture  and  roaring  as  from 
cattle  was  mixed  with  hissing  as  from  reptiles 
while  during  all  this  a  woman's  voice  sputtered 
and  produced  several  hundred  words  a  minute. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  By, 

!At  this  Instant  the  steamer  whistled,  weighed 
anchor  and  hoisted  sail,  the  smokestack  sent  a 
soot  cloud  toward  the  blue  summer  sky.  It  was 
with  a  feeling  of  regret  and  anxiety  that  he  saw 
the  steamer  and  its  beautiful  cannon  disappear 
southward;  he  felt  as  though  he  had  lost  a  sup- 
port and  as  if  the  hate  closed  round  him  like  a 
sack,  he  would  flee,  out,  anywhere. 

Now  a  child  cried,  if  from  fear  or  pain  he  could 
not  hear,  for  under  the  tumult  he  had  stolen 
down  the  staircase  and  reached  the  harbor,  cast 
off  his  painter  and  rowed  out  from  the  land  as 
quickly  as  he  could. 

The  rock  he  was  in  quest  of  was  the  eastern- 
most of  a  little  archipelago,  which  he  had  never 
paid  attention  to  before,  but  now  for  the  first 
time  when  in  need  to  be  alone,  he  sought  it.  A 
hater  of  strong  body  movements,  which  he  found 
partly  superfluous  while  there  existed  locomotion 
by  machinery,  and  partly  detrimental  to  his  nerve 
and  thought  life  for  the  fine  tool  which  the  brain 
capsule  enclosed  could  just  as  little  stand  jars  as 
the  house  where  the  astronomer's  instruments  of 
precision  are  kept.  He  had  never  learned  how 
to  row  but  his  sense  of  time  and  his  well-weighed 
motion  centers  made  him  at  once  a  clever  oars- 
man, and  his  studies  of  physics  taught  him  how 
to  improve  the  old  Invention  so  that  by  raising 
the  seat  he  economized  arm  power. 


88  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

As  he  now  saw  the  skerries  receding  from  the 
stern  of  his  boat  he  began  to  breathe  easier,  and 
when  he  shortly  landed  on  the  first  rock  he  was 
seized  by  an  irrepressible  feeling  of  happiness.  It 
was  a  sunny,  long,  low  islet  whose  strand  rocks 
of  gray  gneiss  formed  a  little  harbor  into  which 
the  boat  sped.  The  water  near  the  beach  was 
transparent  as  condensed  limpid  air,  and  the  soft 
color  of  the  kelp  shone  at  the  bottom  as  though 
molten  Into  a  mass  of  glass.  The  stones  on  the 
beach  lay  washed,  dried  and  polished,  offering  a 
variation  In  colors  that  never  tired,  for  there  were 
no  two  alike,  while  between  them  the  velvet  grass 
and  sedges  had  sought  hold  for  their  tufts. 
Slowly  the  ledge  rose  upward  and  In  depressions 
In  the  moss  lay  the  mews'  eggs,  three  by  three, 
coffee  brown  with  black  spots,  while  their  owners 
cried  and  cawed  above  his  head.  He  climbed 
higher  up  to  where  a  pile  of  stones  had  been  laid 
up  by  marine  surveyors,  and  were  whitewashed 
by  the  gulls,  mews  and  terns.  A  few  juniper 
bushes  spread  out  as  carpets  and  beneath  them  a 
profusion  of  the  white,  subtle  star  flower  had  im- 
provised Its  bed,  a  connection  of  Middle  Europe's 
highlands  and  the  shade  of  northern  forests. 

The  little  turnstone  daring  and  gay  fluttered 
uneasily  around  the  disturber  of  the  peace  to  mis- 
lead him  from  her  nest. 

Not  a  shrub,  not  a  tree  pointed  over  the  half 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  89 

naked  ledges,  and  this  absence  of  shadows  from 
coverts,  gave  the  visitor  a  lighter  and  gayer  mood. 
Everything  was  open,  overlooked  at  once,  sunlit 
on  this  ledge  of  rock,  and  the  water  which  sepa- 
rated him  from  his  lately  left  home  among  the 
savages,  seemed  to  surround  him  with  an  insur- 
mountable limit  of  pure  transparency.  The  half 
arctic,  half  alpine  landscape  with  its  primeval 
formation  refreshed  and  rested  him.  When  he 
had  become  rested,  he  took  the  boat  and  rowed 
on  further.  He  passed  three  polished  rocks,  re- 
sembling three  petrified  waves,  naked  as  a  hand, 
without  a  trace  of  organic  life  and  which  only 
aroused  a  scientific,  geological  interest  concerning 
their  origin;  he  grazed  a  flat  rock  of  reddish 
gneiss;  on  Its  lee  side  stood  a  hundred  years'  moun- 
tain ash,  solitary,  moss  bedecked,  gnarled,  and  in 
Its  ragged  trunk  a  white  wagtail  hatched  its  brood 
for  lack  of  rooftile  or  stone  wall.  The  little 
charming  bird  dove  down  among  the  strand  stones 
and  would  make  the  foe  believe  that  in  no  wise 
there  existed  a  nest  or  gray  white  eggs  there. 

The  solitary  mountain  ash  stood  on  a  grassy 
carpet  of  a  few  square  feet  and  looked  so  lonely, 
but  so  unusually  strong  In  lack  of  competition, 
and  could  better  defy  storm,  salt  water  and  cold 
than  with  jealous  equals  wrangling  over  earth 
crumbs.  He  felt  attracted  to  the  lonely  veteran 
and  longed,  during  a  transitory  moment,  to  raise 


90  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

a  hut  at  Its  feet,  but  he  passed  on  and  the  feeling 
blew  away. 

A  dark  cliff  came  to  view  behind  the  last  point, 
It  was  coal  black  from  the  volcanic  mineral  dlo- 
rlte,  and,  as  he  approached  It,  he  became  de- 
pressed. The  black  crystallized  mass  seemed  to 
have  been  cast  up  from  the  sea  bottom,  and 
after  hardening  had  come  Into  a  terrible  fight 
with  water  or  a  thundercloud  and  had  cracked 
Into  eight  parts,  which  had  afterwards  been  car- 
ried away  by  the  sea  and  Ice  or  dragged  down 
into  the  depth.  Steep,  perpendicular  stood  the 
black  glittering  wall  out  along  the  little  harbor, 
and  when  the  boat  landed  below  It  he  felt  as 
though  he  was  down  In  a  coal  mine  or  a  sooty 
blacksmith's  shop.  It  depressed  and  awed  him, 
he  climbed  up  on  the  cliff,  there  rose  as  a  landmark 
a  pole  with  a  white  painted  keg  at  the  top.  This 
trace  of  human  beings  out  here  where  no  people 
were  to  be  seen,  was  a  mixed  reminder  of  gibbet, 
shipwreck,  coal,  a  crude  contrast  between  the  un- 
mixed colorless  colors,  black  and  white,  of  barren 
violent  nature  devoid  of  organic  life,  there  being 
no  lichens  or  moss  on  the  whole  body  of  the 
rock;  further,  this  carpentry  work  without  vegeta- 
ble transition  between  primeval  nature  and  human 
hand  work,  was  Irritating,  disquieting  and  brutal. 
In  the  great  Sunday  stillness  he  heard  beneath 
his  feet,  where    stones    had    rattled    down    and 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  91 

formed  a  roof  over  a  crevice,  how  the  long  break- 
ers sucked  in  half  way  under  the  point,  and 
pressed  the  air  forward  with  muffled  sound,  then 
drew  back  again  with  a  hissing  and  hollow  sigh- 
ing. 

He  stood  a  moment  enjoying  the  oppression, 
while  his  thoughts  wandered  back  to  old  memories 
which  always  brought  him  loathing.  He  smelt 
coal  gas,  saw  manufactories,  sooty,  discontented 
people,  heard  machinery,  city  rumbling  and  human 
voices,  which  spoke  words  that  would  eat  their  way 
through  his  ears  into  his  brain  and  sow  seeds  that 
would  spring  up  as  weeds  smothering  his  own 
sowing;  transforming  the  field  he  had  cultivated 
with  so  much  pains  to  a  wild  meadow  like  those 
of  the  others. 

He  climbed  into  his  boat  and  turned  his  back 
on  the  gloomy  sight;  again  he  enjoyed  the  In- 
finite purity  of  the  waters,  the  empty  blue  which 
like  an  unwritten  slate  lay  soothingly  before  him, 
for  it  did  not  raise  any  memories,  develop  any  in- 
spirations, or  call  forth  any  strong  sensations. 
And  now  when  he  approached  a  larger  island,  he 
greeted  it  as  a  new 'acquaintance  who  should  tell 
him  something  else  and  efface  the  recent  Impres- 
sions, New  points  and  rocks  were  passed,  each 
offering  its  surprise,  its  special  physiognomy,  often 
with  such  small  differences  that  it  required  a 
sharply  trained  eye  to  see  them.     These   small 


92  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

cliffs,  which  seemed  so  naked,  so  tlresomely  alike 
when  viewed  from  a  passing  boat,  offered  at 
nearer  view  the  most  changeable  scenery,  just  as 
variance  of  the  same  coins  only  to  the  numisma- 
tist betray  their  secrets. 

He  now  landed  on  a  somewhat  larger  islet 
whose  irregular  jagged  appearance  had  allured 
him,  especially  when  he  saw  protruding  over  the 
tops  of  the  rocks  the  crowns  of  trees  with  dense 
foliage.  When  he  had  climbed  up  on  the  north- 
ern point,  the  black  base  of  which  was  polished 
smooth  by  the  waves,  he  saw  that  the  island  was 
a  cluster  of  at  least  four  others,  that  seemed  to 
have  been  drifted  together  by  different  winds, 
and  by  the  congestion  of  different  geological 
formations,  forming  a  whole  conglomerate  of 
landscape  pictures,  brought  from  every  zone. 
iThe  northern  part  was  composed  of  a  cone  of 
hornblende  schist  which,  down  on  the  strand,  was 
cleft  in  enormous  blocks  that  had  fallen  from  the 
rocky  wall,  and  was  as  yet  unpolished  by  the 
water,  while  between  these  cubes  grew  strangely, 
as  though  allured  by  secret  sympathy,  an  immense 
number  of  black  currant  shrubs,  dusky  in  color 
and  harmonizing  in  tone  with  the  black  sparkling 
stones.  It  was  so  unexpected  to  find  these  cul- 
tured deserters  from  the  garden  out  here  In  the 
wilderness  that  It  appeared  as  a  joke  of  nature, 
perhaps  laid  In  the  bill  of  a  wounded  black-cock 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  93 

that  had  flown  out  here  to  die,  carrying  the  seeds 
of  dawning  culture.  Farther  up  in  the  rock  pile 
stood  a  grove  of  deciduous  trees  with  light  ver- 
dure, but  with  cut  tops  and  white  trunks,  as  though 
whitewashed  with  lime  by  fostering  human  hand. 
He  tried  from  a  distance  to  guess  their  species, 
but  they  were  so  different  from  all  others  he  had 
seen  in  this  latitude  that  his  thoughts  revolved 
between  acacias,  beeches  and  Japan  varnish  trees, 
so  common  In  southern  Europe,  and  when  he 
finally  heard  the  well  known  rustle  of  the  com- 
mon aspen  he  would  not  believe  his  ears.  He 
quickly  shunned  a  viper,  which  ran  down  between 
two  stones  like  a  stream  of  water,  and  coming 
nearer,  he  saw  that  he  had  heard  aright.  It  was 
the  slender  and  trim  aspen  of  the  groves  and  pas- 
tures, that  the  northern  wind,  stony  ground,  drift- 
ing Ice  and  salt  water  had  pruned  and  trained  to 
this  unrecognizable  variety,  and  which  in  the  battle 
against  tempest  and  cold  had  turned  gray  and  lost 
its  top,  and  therefore  only  consisted  of  frozen 
sprouts  that  were  continually  shooting  out  inde- 
fatigably  renewing  themselves,  while  the  goats 
had  peeled  off  the  protecting  bark  and  let  the  sap 
run  out.  There  was  eternal  youth  in  those  soft 
light  green  shoots  on  the  gray  whiskered  branch- 
less trunk,  old  age  without  maturity,  an  abnor- 
mality which  was  refreshing  because  It  was  new 
and  transcended  the  banal. 


94  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

When  he  had  climbed  up  between  the  sharp 
stones  and  reached  the  height  It  was  as  If  he  had 
ascended  a  field  In  ten  minutes.  The  region  of 
deciduous  trees  lay  below  him,  and  upon  the 
plateau  appeared  already  the  alpine  flora,  with 
the  field  form  of  the  juniper,  and  close  by  the 
veritable  northern  cloud  berry  In  the  white  moss 
of  the  moist  crevices,  and  here  and  there  the  little 
civilized  cornel,  perhaps  the  only  Swedish  shrub 
on  the  seaboard.  He  slowly  descended  the 
southern  slope,  through  cowberry  and  bearberry 
vines,  hair  grass,  sedges,  cotton  grass  and  springy 
mosses,  until  suddenly  he  stood  on  a  ravine,  where 
the  Islet  had  cracked  and  formed  a  channel  be- 
tween the  black  rocky  walls. 

With  wild  shrieks  the  saucy  auks  flew  up  as  he 
stepped  on  a  natural  stone  bridge  across  the  shal- 
low channel,  climbed  another  cliff  of  lighter  forma- 
tions, and  reached  a  new  section  of  this  wonderful 
Islet. 

The  light  elegant  eurlte,  in  which  faint  rose- 
colored  feldspar  was  mingled  with  a  delicate  blue- 
green  quartz  while  mica  was  only  betrayed  through 
a  glistening  like  microscopical  hoar  frost,  gave 
the  little  landscape  a  gay  aspect,  and  being  cleft 
Infinitely,  It  offered  sofas  and  real  armchairs  at 
every  step.  A  compact  vein  of  granular  white 
limestone  passed  as  a  belt  straight  through  the 
rocky  mass,  and  the  fertile  gravel  from  this  which 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  95 

had  crumbled  from  rain  and  frost,  was  amassed 
below  between  the  rocky  walls.  And  here  a  ra- 
vine began  to  present  such  an  enchanting  view  that 
he  stopped  amazed  and  sat  down  on  one  of  the 
stone  stools  to  enjoy  the  surprising  fairy  scenery. 

Before  him,  between  the  perpendicular  walls 
whose  bases  disappeared  in  the  soil,  there  un- 
folded a  grassy  carpet  interwoven  with  endless 
flowers,  choicer  and  more  thrifty  than  those  on 
the  mainland.  The  blood  red  geranium  had 
stepped  from  the  rock  and  sought  moisture  down 
here,  the  honey  white  grass  of  Parnassus  from  the 
wet  sedgy  mead  had  here  met  with  the  forest's 
blue  yellow  hly  of  the  valley,  and  the  southern 
orchids,  perhaps  wind  driven  from  the  vineland 
.Gothland,  had  fled  here,  the  hyacinth  like  orchis- 
sambucina,  the  pompous  orchis  militaris,  the 
stately  cephalanthera,  a  kind  of  embellished  lily 
of  the  valley,  had  sought  their  nursery  here  in  the 
forcing  lime  and  moist  sea  air  between  protecting 
walls  in  the  most  luxurious  grass. 

And  far  in  the  distance  the  walls  of  the  cliffs 
were  hidden  by  birch  and  alder  trees,  which  rose 
modestly  in  the  air  without  daring  to  raise  their 
tops  to  the  wind;  self-sown  here  and  there  stood 
the  cranberry  trees  in  the  midst  of  the  grassy 
carpet,  with  their  white  snowballs  hanging  to  the 
grapelike  leaf;  the  dark  green  buckthorn  leaned 
like  an  espalier    against    the    precipice    and    its 


96  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

glossy  leaves  faintly  reminded  of  the  orange  so 
famed  in  song,  but  were  more  juicy,  more  varied 
in  color,  finer  in  design  and  more  delicate  struc- 
ture. 

It  was  a  park  with  the  characteristics  of  the 
mainland  floating  out  here,  and  when  through  a 
rent  or  depression  in  the  rocks  he  saw  a  blue  hor- 
izontal streak  of  the  sea,  the  contrast  in  the  won- 
derful scenery  struck  him. 

After  he  had  sat  a  moment  and  listened  to  the 
chaffinch's  spring  time  song,  which  was  interrupted 
by  the  gulls'  and  guillemots'  caws  and  shrieks,  and 
he  felt  the  solitude  enwrap  him  like  a  slumber, 
and  when  the  birds  for  a  moment  were  hushed  and 
only  the  faint  sea  breeze  rustled  in  the  birch  tops 
without  reaching  farther  down,  he  heard  unex- 
pectedly a  cough.  He  started  and  looked  around 
but  saw  no  trace  of  man. 

The  painful  hollow  sound  from  the  chest  of  a 
human  being  in  the  midst  of  this  quiet  nature 
awoke  him  suddenly  and  brought  a  disagreeable 
feeling  of  loathing.  Was  it  a  lonely  one  like  him- 
self who  sought  rest,  or  a  nest  plunderer?  In 
either  case  he  would  free  himself  from  uneasiness, 
and  find  out  who  this  was  that  disturbed  him. 
Therefore  he  climbed  the  rocky  wall  on  natural 
steps  in  the  limestone  dyke  and  he  beheld  now  the 
third  section  of  this  polyp-like  islet.  Over  a  low 
stone   wall,   apparently  to  protect  the  blooming 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  97 

field  from  grazing  cattle,  he  passed  to  a  pine  tree 
region  on  gneiss,  walked  under  the  branches, 
trampled  knee  deep  in  ferns  which  formed  an  un- 
derbrush beneath  the  pine  trees  and  resembled 
dwarf  palms  but  of  fresher  green  and  more  ele- 
gant foliage,  while  at  their  feet  were  seen  the 
blushing  strawberries. 

When  he  came  up  out  of  the  ravine  he  saw  a 
cove  with  rushes  where  some  abandoned  pole 
hooks  were  driven  in  the  mud.  He  stopped  to 
listen,  and  soon  he  heard  a  voice  which  came  from 
the  other  side  of  the  knoll.  It  rang  high  and  soft 
as  a  child's  and  sank  again  so  that  he  thought  it 
was  some  young  yachtsman  who  had  ventured  out 
here.  But  the  words  fell  so  passively,  attrac- 
tively, winningly,  and  invitingly,  and  he  was  sur- 
prised to  hear  a  boy  expressing  himself  in  so  care- 
ful language.  The  vocabulary  was  small  and  the 
language  was  that  of  ordinary  conservation  in 
cultured  society,  but  without  force  or  diversity  of 
expression,  and  the  objects  spoken  of  were  called 
by  incorrect  terms.  The  speaker  talked  about 
the  verdure  of  the  trees  without  naming  them, 
called  the  mews  gulls,  the  chaffinch  a  bird,  gneiss 
granite  and  the  bulrush  a  reed. 

It  might  be  a  youth  that  Insisted  upon  being 
heard  and  spoke  so  long  without  allowing  himself 
to  be  interrupted  by  the  slow  mumbling  voice  of 
an  old  man,  who  every  now  and  then  muttered 


98  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

an  objection  or  information.  Now  the  youthful 
voice  laughed,  a  laughter  without  cause,  to  judge 
from  the  conversation,  a  laughter  to  let  the  beauti- 
ful voice  be  heard  or  show  a  set  of  white  teeth, 
a  laughter  without  merriment,  a  succession  of 
ringing  sounds  without  other  meaning  than  to 
jealously  divert  the  attention  from  something 
real,  which  would  come  between.  A  signal,  a  bird 
call!  There  was  no  doubt.  It  was  a  young 
woman's  voice. 

He  stepped  unresistingly  up  onto  the  last  knoll 
after  having  felt  of  his  necktie  and  hat,  and  he 
now  saw  beneath  him  a  picture,  whose  details 
ever  after  remained  in  his  memory.  On  a  little 
upland  meadow,  under  a  group  of  old  white  beam 
trees  around  a  white  linen  damask  tablecloth,  in 
the  center  of  which  was  a  butter  dish  of  Kolmord 
marble,  surrounded  by  the  contents  of  a  lunch 
basket,  sat  an  old  lady  with  beautiful  gray  hair 
and  a  well  fitting  gown,  and  close  beside  her  stood 
a  fisherman  in  his  shirt  sleeves  with  a  sandwich 
in  his  hand,  while  before  him  stood  a  young  lady 
holding  in  her  hand  a  glass  of  beer,  which  she 
with  a  merry  curtesy  and  the  ripples  of  a  dying 
laughter  on  her  lips,  reached  to  the  embarrassed 
boatman. 

He  was  captivated  at  once  by  the  young 
woman's  looks,  and  although  his  reflection  at  once 
whispered  that  she  coquetted  with  the  churl,  he 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  99 

felt  an  irresistible  attraction  in  the  dark  olive 
complexion,  the  black  eyes,  and  the  stately  figure. 
It  certainly  was  not  the  first  woman  which  had 
attracted  him  at  once,  but  she  belonged  to  that 
class  of  women  which  never  failed  to  attract  him 
to  them.  The  solitude  and  absence  of  others  was 
not  the  reason  of  the  quick  selection,  because  he 
felt  exactly  the  same  as  when  he  sought  a  color 
for  a  necktie  and  after  walking  dejectedly  from 
store  to  store  without  experiencing  the  pleasant 
feeling  that  the  article  sought  after  would  give, 
he  finally  stopped  before  a  show  window  where 
the  right  one  was,  and  in  the  same  moment  felt 
free  from  pressure  as  he  quietly  said  to  himself, 
this  is  the  one! 

After  having  hesitated  a  moment  whether  to 
step  forward  and  introduce  himself,  or  turn  back, 
he  made  a  movement  which  betrayed  him.  The 
girl  observed  him  first,  her  arms  fell  to  her  sides 
and  she  looked  with  the  expression  of  a  frightened 
child  at  the  unexpected  appearance,  which  at  once 
gave  the  intruder  courage  to  step  forward  and  re- 
assure the  group  with  an  explanation. 

Raising  his  hat  with  a  low  bow  he  stepped  up 
to  them. 


CHAPTER  FIFTH 

Half  an  hour  later  the  commissioner  sat  in  the 
little  company's  sailboat  with  his  own  dory  in 
tow,  he  was  already  installed  in  the  position  of 
guide  to  the  two  ladies,  who  had  for  their  health 
sought  a  resort  for  the  summer  on  Fish  Skerry 
and  would  consequently  be  his  neighbors.  The 
conversation  ran  agreeably  between  the  three  new 
acquaintances  with  a  somewhat  precipitate  ardor 
to  compete  and  show  their  readiness  and  best  side 
which  is  called  forth  in  all  who  meet  for  the  first 
time.  The  one  who  made  the  least  effort  was  the 
elderly  lady,  who  had  introduced  herself  as  mother 
of  the  young  beauty.  She  seemed  to  have  reached 
a  perfect  harmony  and  resignation,  worn  off  all 
corners  and  was  living  In  her  memories  and  semi- 
Indifferently  regarding  what  was  going  on  around 
her,  expecting  nothing  from  others,  prepared  for 
everything  that  life  could  offer  her  of  good  or  ill 
and  charming  with  her  even  mild  disposition. 

An  affinity  had  already  arisen  between  the 
young  man  and  the  young  woman,  and  she  seemed 
to  enjoy  receiving,  and  he,  who  had  so  long  waited 
to  give,  felt  his  powers  growing  now  that  the  long- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  loi 

accumulated  surplus  had  found  an  outlet.  And 
he  gave  for  half  an  hour  with  lavish  hand  from  all 
he  had  stored  of  information  that  could  be  of  in- 
terest to  them  who  were  unacquainted  with  the 
conditions  which  would  surround  them  for  awhile. 
He  delineated  all  the  resources  of  the  skerry  and 
its  deficiencies,  depicted  the  life  very  alluringly 
as  it  at  this  moment  appeared  to  him  to  become, 
now  when  he  was  no  longer  alone.  And  the 
young  woman,  who  had  never  seen  the  skerry,  re- 
ceived her  first  actual  impression  of  the  same  from 
his  description.  In  imagination  she  saw  the  red 
cottage  where  she  was  going  to  live  with  her 
mother,  so  neat  and  cosy  just  as  he  wished  that 
she  would  see  it  in  order  to  feel  at  home  and  tarry 
there.  While  he  spoke  it  seemed  to  him  as 
though  he  received  in  return  something  good  and 
strong,  as  though  he  heard  new  thoughts,  new 
points  of  view  spoken  by  her  lips  which  stood 
half  open,  not  as  though  to  swallow  what  he 
reached  her,  but  as  though  they  spoke  themselves, 
and  when  her  two  big,  faithful  eyes  looked  ad- 
miringly and  surprisedly  up  to  him  he  believed 
that  all  he  said  was  true  and  felt  with  rising  es- 
teem for  himself  new  powers  awakened,  and  old 
ones  growing  in  strength  and  tenacity.  He  felt 
so  really  thankful  when  the  boat  touched  land, 
just  as  after  having  received  benefices  when  In 
need,  that  he  involuntarily  thanked  them  heartily 


102  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

as  he  helped  the  ladles  out  of  the  boat  and  carried 
their  heavy  valises  on  shore. 

The  young  girl  returned  the  politeness  with 
"  not  at  all,"  but  as  though  out  of  her  treasures 
she  had  really  given  a  trifle  compared  with  what 
she  had  in  reserve. 

When  the  commissioner  had  escorted  the  ladies 
to  their  new  home  which  turned  out  to  be  Oman's 
cottage,  the  young  girl  broke  out  into  a  flow  of 
rapture,  being  still  under  the  influence  of  Borg's 
enchanting  description.  The  dilapidated  house 
had  something  unusually  picturesque  in  its  exterior, 
for  there  was  not  a  single  straight  line.  Storms, 
salt  water,  frost  and  rain  had  destroyed  every 
straight  outline,  and  since  the  mortar  had  fallen 
from  the  chimney  it  looked  like  a  big  tufa.  Still 
more  agreeably  surprising  was  the  really  home- 
like interior  with  its  old-fashioned  comfort.  The 
two  rooms  were  located  one  on  each  side  of  the 
hall,  with  a  kitchen  between  them  at  the  end;  the 
best  room  was  spacious,  with  dark  brown  paper, 
which  from  smoke  and  age  had  assumed  a  pleas- 
ing, quiet,  even  brown  tone  with  which  every  color 
harmonized.  The  low  ceiling,  which  left  no  va- 
cant space  to  be  peopled  by  fancies,  showed  the 
beams  on  which  rested  the  attic  floor.  Two  small 
windows,  with  panes  about  half  a  foot  square  dis- 
colored by  age,  allowed  a  view  of  the  harbor  and 
the  sea,  and  the  mass  of  light  from  outside  was 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  103 

pleasantly  subdued  by  the  white  lace  curtains 
which  protected  against  glances  from  outside  with- 
out shutting  out  the  daylight,  and  hung  like  light 
summer  clouds  down  over  balsam  and  geraniums 
in  English  faience  mugs  with  Queen  Victoria  and 
Lord  Nelson  in  yellow  and  green.  The  furniture 
comprising  a  big  white  folding  table,  a  Gustavian 
bedstead  on  which  were  piled  numerous  eiderdown 
beds,  a  white  painted  wooden  sofa,  a  clock  of  Mora 
make  that  struck  the  hours,  a  bureau  of  birch  with 
its  mirror  frame  veneered  with  the  root  of  the 
alder,  draped  with  a  bridal  veil  and  loaded  with 
porcelain  knickknacks.  On  the  bureau  stood  a 
mounted  parrot  under  a  glass  case,  and  on  the  wall 
hung  colored  lithographic  pictures  from  the 
Old  Testament,  among  which  the  two  over  the 
bed  seemed  to  have  been  placed  with  questionable 
purpose,  one  representing  Samson  and  Delilah  in 
a  very  unveiled  delineation,  the  other  was  Joseph 
and  Potiphar's  wife.  In  one  corner  was  an  open 
fireplace  which  occupied  considerable  space  and 
would  have  been  dreadful  had  not  the  black  gap 
been  covered  by  a  white  draw  curtain. 

It  was  homelike,  idyllic  and  cleanly. 

The  other  chamber  was  like  the  first,  but  had 
two  beds  and  a  commode;  the  floor  was  covered 
with  a  rag  carpet  which  with  its  variegated  colors 
formed  an  album  of  memories,  from  grandfather's 
jacket,    grandmother's    blouse,    mother's    cotton 


I04  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

gown  and  father's  pilot  uniform.  There  were 
the  red  garters  of  the  girls  and  the  yellow  gallows 
of  the  land-wehr  boys,  blue  bathing  suits  of  the 
summer  guests,  beaver  and  corduroy,  cotton  and 
baize,  wool  and  crash,  from  all  fashions  and  ward- 
robes, poor  men's  and  rich  men's. 

In  this  room  stood  a  big  white  cupboard  with 
fancy  paintings  on  the  door  panels,  framed  in  ivy 
wreaths  painted  with  mosaic  bronze,  wonderful 
small  landscapes  with  dark  blue  coves,  banks  of 
rushes  and  sailboats,  trees  of  unknown  species, 
from  paradise  or  the  carboniferous  age,  turbulent 
seas  with  waves  straight  as  furrows  in  a  potato 
field,  a  lighthouse  like  a  column  on  a  rocky  ledge, 
everything  as  naive  as  a  child's  simple  comprehen- 
sion of  rich  nature's  infinite  variety  of  shapes  and 
colors,  which  only  the  highly  trained  eye  can  dis- 
cern. 

In  all  this  old-fashioned  simplicity  lay  the  es- 
sential part  of  the  cure  for  a  tired  brain,  which 
would  seek  rest  In  the  past.  The  worn  move- 
ment of  the  watch  would  lay  unwound  awhile  and 
let  the  spring  be  relieved  of  tension  to  regain  its 
spent  powers.  The  association  with  the  lower 
classes  which  did  not  entice  to  battle  for  the  mor- 
sel of  power,  but  themselves  involuntarily  every 
day  and  hour  reminded  those  of  the  upper  class  of 
their  dearly  earned  position,  would  diminish  the 
stimulus  and  quiet  those  desirous   of  power  by 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  105 

the  thought  that  there  already  existed  passed  by 
periods. 

The  commissioner  had  already  prepared  the 
minds  of  the  visitors  to  see  and  know  all  this,  and 
neither  of  the  ladies  tired  of  expressing  their  sat- 
isfaction with  the  new  quarters  and  were  so  oc- 
cupied by  investigating  the  location  that  they  did 
not  observe  that  their  guide  had  retreated  to  leave 
them  undisturbed. 

The  commissioner  sat  at  his  window  on  this 
Sunday  afternoon  and  watched  the  two  ladies  put 
things  In  order  down  in  their  cottage.  When  he 
followed  with  his  eyes  their  soft,  but  irregular 
movements,  it  was  to  him  as  though  he  heard 
music.  The  same  modulations  that  a  series  of 
harmonizing  tones  develop  on  the  ear  drum  and 
communicate  to  the  nerve  system,  the  sam.e  mild 
vibrations  were  now  produced  through  the  eye, 
and  rang  through  the  white  strings  which  stretched 
from  the  cranium  shell  out  over  the  sounding 
board  of  the  chest  and  transmitted  the  vibrations 
through  the  foundation  of  his  soul.  A  feeling  of 
general  pleasure  streamed  through  his  being,  when 
he  saw  these  women's  hands  moving  in  waving 
lines,  as  they  picked  trifles  from  their  trunks  and 
laid  them  on  the  table  and  chairs,  the  rising  and 
sinking  of  the  hips  and  shoulders  imperceptible  to 
the  untrained  eye,  but  still  so  elastic.     And  when 


io6  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

the  young  woman  passed  through  the  room,  there 
arose  no  straight  line,  no  corners  or  edges  when 
she  turned,  no  angles  when  she  bent  over. 

He  was  perfectly  captivated  in  regarding  this, 
so  that  for  a  moment  he  did  not  notice  the  noise 
in  the  garret  and  the  creaking  of  the  stairs  and 
the  raising  of  latches. 

He  was  deeply  occupied  regarding  the  young 
lady  whose  exterior  seemed  to  him  perfectly  beau- 
tiful except  in  one  point,  which  deficiency  he  would 
try  and  accustom  his  eyes  not  to  see.  Her  chin 
was  a  few  lines  too  big  and  indicated  a  lower  jaw 
unnecessarily  developed  in  one  who  had  ceased  to 
catch,  hold  and  tear  uncooked  meat,  and  when  he 
saw  it  in  profile  he  could  picture  the  coming  witch 
physiognomy,  when  the  time  came  that  the  old 
woman's  teeth  loosened,  the  lips  sunk  and  formed 
an  obtuse  angle  and  the  nose  dropped  down  over 
the  prominent  chin.  But  he  must  overcome  this 
reminder  of  a  beast  of  prey,  and  he  pursued  her 
face  with  his  glance  and  reshaped  it  in  his  fancy, 
forced  his  eyes  when  they  w'ere  fixed  upon  her  face 
to  see  it  in  its  entirety. 

Now  he  heard  footsteps  and  shouts  down  oni 
the  hill,  and  in  a  wild  rage  Oman's  wife  appeared 
with  a  swarm  of  women,  who  were  carrying  in 
triumph  the  rescued  net  down  to  the  beach. 

He  instantly  felt  his  authority  infringed  on,  and 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  107 

taking  his  hat  went  down  to  the  surveyor  to  de* 
mand  his  help  as  he  was  in  the  Crown's  service 
and  in  duty  bound  to  assist  him. 

In  the  room  sat  the  custom  house  man  at  the 
coffee  table,  and  as  usual,  when  Vestman  was  out 
fishing,  he  had  his  arm  around  the  waist  of  his 
sister-in-law.  At  the  entrance  of  the  commis- 
sioner he  dropped  his  hold  and  under  influence  of 
the  fear  of  being  discovered  he  showed  a  greater 
officiousness  than  he  otherwise  would  have  done. 
He  put  on  his  uniform  cap  and  went  out  and  in 
a  hasty  desire  to  be  a  just  man  he  stormed  against 
the  women  and  caught  hold  of  the  net. 

"  Damned  old  women,  don't  you  know  it  is  peni- 
tentiary to  break  the  Crown's  lock  and  seal!  " 

The  women  answered  in  a  chorus  of  imputa- 
tions, which  alluded  to  both  the  commissioner  and 
surveyor,  the  principal  ones  being  that  they  did 
not  care  and  that  the  devil  might  take  the  Crown's 
lock  and  seal,  and  that  both  gentlemen  were  of 
such  characters  that  they  could  be  put  in  peniten- 
tiary at  any  time. 

Whereupon  the  surveyor  became  enraged  and 
cried  to  a  subordinate  to  bring  the  sheriff. 

At  the  word  sheriff  the  people  gathered,  crawled 
out  of  every  hole  and  corner  like  ants,  when  one 
scratches  in  an  ant-hill. 

The  people  seemed  ready  at  once  to  take  part 
with  the  women,  threatening  words  were  uttered. 


loa  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

The  commissioner  found  it  time  for  him  to  inter- 
fere to  avoid  coming  under  a  subordinate's  protec- 
tion. Therefore  he  went  up  to  the  crowd  and 
asked  what  they  wanted. 

But  he  received  no  answer,  and  turning  to  the 
women  he  spoke  to  them  in  a  poHte  but  stern  man- 
ner, saying: 

"  As  I  before  Informed  you,  the  Reichstag  or 
your  own  elected  representatives  decided  for 
the  sake  of  your  children  and  descendants  that  the 
fishing  must  be  protected  through  prohibiting  the 
use  of  such  implements  as  spoil  it  without  bring- 
ing you  any  advantage,  and  when  you  have  had 
three  years  to  wear  out  your  old  nets,  but  are 
still  making  new  ones  against  the  law,  I  have  in 
the  name  of  the  Crown  been  forced  to  confiscate 
the  unlawful  implements.  Nevertheless  and  in 
spite  of  the  statute  law  you  have  broken  the 
Crown's  lock  and  seal,  which  can  be  punished  with 
penitentiary.  Still  I  will  use  clemency  instead  of 
justice  if  you  comply  and  obey,  therefore  I  ask 
you  for  the  last  time,  if  you  will  willingly  give 
back  the  nets." 

To  this  the  women  answered  with  new  shriek 
and  a  new  shower  of  epithets. 

"  Well,"  finished  the  commissioner,  "  as  I  am 
not  a  policeman,  and  you  are  the  multitude,  I  beg 
the  custom  house  surveyor  to  send  for  the  sheriff 
and  his  assistants  and  at  the  same  time  I  will  so- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  109 

licit  an  order  from  the  provincial  governor  to  ar- 
rest Oman's  wife." 

As  he  spoke  the  last  word,  he  felt  two  soft, 
warm  hands  grasp  his  right  hand,  and  two  big 
childish  eyes  looked  into  his,  while  a  falling  voice 
like  that  of  a  mother  who  begged  for  the  life  of 
her  child,  said: 

"  In  the  name  of  Heaven  have  compassion  on  a 
poor  unhappy  woman  and  don't  do  her  any  ill;  " 
it  was  the  supplication  of  the  young  girl  who  had 
at  the  beginning  of  the  scene  come  out  of  the  cot- 
tage. 

The  commissioner  would  free  himself  and 
turned  away  from  the  big  eyes,  whose  glance  he 
could  not  endure,  but  he  felt  his  hand  clasped 
harder  and  finally  pressed  against  a  soft  bosom, 
heard  words  in  melting  tones,  and,  completely 
vanquished,  he  whispered  to  the  beauty,  "  Let  me 
go  and  I  will  drop  the  whole  affair." 

The  girl  loosened  her  hold,  and  the  commis- 
sioner who  made  his  plan  in  half  a  minute  caught 
the  surveyor  by  his  arm  and  led  him  up  to  the 
custom  house  cottage,  just  as  though  he  would  give 
him  some  orders.  When  they  reached  the  door, 
the  commissioner  said  shortly  and  decisively  as 
though  he  had  come  to  a  new  conclusion. 

"  I  shall  communicate  with  the  provincial  gov- 
ernor myself  in  writing.  However,  I  thank  you 
for  your  assistance." 


no  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

Thereupon  he  went  up  to  his  room. 

When  he  was  alone  and  had  collected  his 
thoughts,  he  was  obliged  to  acknowledge  that  his 
last  act  had  been  dictated  by  lower  motives,  as 
his  sexual  impulses  had  prevailed  to  such  a  high 
degree  that  he  had  been  fooled  into  an  act  con- 
trary to  the  law,  for  one  could  not  speak  of  pity 
for  people  who  were  comparatively  well  off,  as 
they  were  owners  of  houses,  fishing  grounds,  boats 
and  implements  valued  at  many  hundreds  of  dol- 
lars, also  owners  of  seal  rookeries  and  bird  islets, 
and,  besides,  paid  taxes  on  capital  and  a  few  small 
places  that  they  rented  out.  The  false  idea  that 
a  woman  had  vanquished  him,  however,  did  not 
hold  a  place  in  his  thoughts,  for  he  knew  very  well, 
conscious  as  he  was  in  all  points  that  he  had  fallen 
by  his  own  propensity  or  interest  to  gain  some- 
thing from  this  woman.  But  before  the  throng 
of  people  his  authority  was  ended,  his  reputation 
shaken  and  hereafter  there  would  not  be  an  old 
woman  or  a  boy  but  felt  themselves  above  him. 
This,  to  be  sure,  might  be  immaterial  for  it  made 
no  difference  to  him  whether  he  had  power  or  not 
over  these  poor  wretches.  What  seemed  worse 
to  him  was  that  this  woman  whom  he  now  felt 
he  must  be  bound  to  in  order  to  be  happy,  should 
from  the  first  moment  inure  herself  in  the  belief 
that  she  had  gained  a  conquest  of  him  and  thus 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  iii 

the  equilibrium  In  a  future  union  would  be  dis- 
turbed. 

He  had  had  many  fancies  for  and  engagements 
with  women  before,  but  his  distinct  consciousness 
of  man's  superiority  over  the  Intermediate  form 
between  man  and  child,  which  Is  called  woman, 
had  made  It  Impossible  for  him  to  conceal  It  long, 
and  therefore  his  engagements  had  had  but  short 
duration.  He  would  be  loved  by  a  woman,  who 
should  look  up  to  him  as  the  stronger,  he  would 
be  the  adored,  not  the  adorer,  he  would  be  the 
main  trunk  on  which  the  frail  shoot  should  be 
grafted,  but  he  was  born  at  a  period  which  was 
full  of  spiritual  pestilence,  when  womankind  was 
devastated  by  an  epidemic  mania  for  greatness, 
produced  by  degenerated,  sickly  men,  and  by  polit- 
ical pygmies,  who  were  in  need  of  the  masses  to 
vote.  Therefore  he  had  been  obliged  to  live 
alone.  Well  he  knew  that  In  love,  man  must  give, 
must  let  himself  be  fooled  and  that  the  only  way 
to  approach  a  woman  was  on  all  fours.  And  he 
had  crawled  at  Intervals,  and  as  long  as  he  crawled 
everything  had  gone  well,  but  when  he  had  finally 
straightened  up,  that  was  the  end  of  It,  always 
with  a  multitude  of  reproaches  that  he  had  been 
false,  that  he  had  dissembled  submission,  that  he 
had  never  loved,  and  so  on. 

Moreover,  as  a  possessor  of  the  highest  Intel- 


112  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

lectual  enjoyments,  and  feeling  himself  an  excep- 
tional being,  he  had  not  harbored  a  lively  desire 
after  the  lower  affections,  never  desired  to  be  the 
supporter  of  a  parasite,  never  longed  to  feed  com- 
petitors, and  his  stronger  self  had  rebelled  against 
being  the  instrument  of  propagation  for  a  wom- 
an's lineage,  the  role  he  had  seen  most  men  of  his 
age  play. 

But  now  he  stood  in  just  such  a  dilemma  again, 
to  assimilate  a  woman  by  allowing  himself  to  be 
assimilated.  To  dissemble  or  let  his  exterior  ex- 
press what  he  did  not  feel,  he  could  not,  but  he 
had  a  great  ability  for  adapting  himself  to  his 
associations,  and  comprehending  other  people's 
way  of  thinking  and  suffering,  for  he  had  never 
found  in  the  lives  of  others  anything  but  past 
stages  that  he  himself  had  lived  through,  and  con- 
sequently he  had  only  to  draw  from  memory  or 
experience,  letting  go  his  hold,  and  diminishing 
the  tension  onward.  He  had  always  found  pleas- 
ure in  woman's  company  as  a  rest  and  diversion 
on  exactly  the  same  ground  and  from  the  same 
reason  that  keeping  company  with  children  makes 
one  grow  younger  and  is  a  strengthening  amuse- 
ment, when  it  is  not  continued  too  long  or  be- 
comes an  effort. 

Now  he  had  felt  the  desire  growing  In  him  to 
own  this  woman,  but  notwithstanding  he  was  an 
investigator  and  knew  that  man  was  a  mammal, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  113 

it  was  perfectly  clear  to  him  that  human  love  had 
developed  as  everything  else,  and  has  taken  up  the 
elements  of  a  higher  spiritual  quality  without  leav- 
ing the  sensual  foundation.  He  knew  precisely 
how  much  of  unsound  heavenliness  sneaked  in  with 
the  reaction  of  Christianity  against  the  purely 
brutish,  should  be  eliminated,  and  he  did  not  be- 
lieve in  a  primness  which  conceded  matters  that 
could  not  be  shown,  just  as  little  as  he  admitted 
that  the  only  purpose  of  the  conjugal  state  was 
the  bedfellowshlp.  He  wished  for  an  intimate, 
complete  union  as  to  body  and  soul,  where  he  as 
the  stronger  acid  would  neutralize  the  passive 
base,  but  not  as  in  chemistry  form  a  new  neutral 
body,  but,  on  the  contrary,  would  leave  a  surplus 
of  free  acid,  which  would  always  give  the  union 
its  character  and  He  in  readiness  to  neutralize  any 
attempt  of  the  combination  to  liberate  itself,  for 
human  love  was  not  a  chemical  union,  but  a  phys- 
ical and  organic,  which  resembled  the  former  In 
certain  respects  without  being  identical  with  the  I: 
same.  He  did  not  expect  any  augmentation  of 
his  own  self,  no  addition  to  his  strength,  only  an 
increase  of  his  vitality,  and  Instead  of  searching 
for  a  support  he  offered  himself  as  a  support  to 
learn  his  strength  and  feel  the  enjoyment  of  meas- 
uring out  his  power,  strewing  with  open  hands  his 
soul  without  being  weakened  thereby  or  made  des- 
titute. 


114  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

During  these  thoughts  he  glanced  out  of  the 
window  and  saw  at  once  what  he  sought,  for  the 
young  girl  was  standing  on  the  door  stoop  receiv- 
ing hand  shakings  from  women  and  men,  patting 
the  children  on  their  heads  and  seemed  overcome 
by  feelings,  which  so  much  public  sympathy  had 
aroused. 

"  What  a  peculiar  sympathy  for  criminals," 
thought  the  commissioner;  "what  a  love  for  the 
mentally  poor!  And  how  well  they  understood 
each  other's  propensities,  which  they  boasted  of 
as  feelings  and  which  they  believed  to  be  some- 
thing more  than  clear,  mature  thoughts." 

The  whole  scene  was  such  a  tangle  of  absurdi- 
ties, that  it  could  not  be  cleared,  reflecting  the 
chaotic  in  the  first  weak  attempt  at  reasoning,  by 
these  brains  and  spinal  cords. 

There  stood  she  who  had  fooled  him  into  vio- 
lating the  law,  and  received  worship  like  an  angel. 
Even  now  if  his  violation  of  the  law  was  from 
their  point  of  view  a  fine  noble  action,  then  he  who 
gave  pardon  instead  of  justice  ought  to  have  the 
thanks.  The  opinion  of  the  horde  was  that  he 
should  not,  for  they  well  knew  that  the  motive  for 
his  action  was  not  kindness  towards  them,  but  per- 
haps tender  feelings  for  a  young  girl,  gallantry, 
or  the  hope  of  winning  her.  Yes,  but  the  motive 
for  her  appearance  might  then  be  to  gain  the  good 
will  of  the  crowd,  to  become  beloved  and  popular, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  115 

and  receive  hand  shakes;  the  horde  here  played 
the  same  role  as  the  society  of  the  ballroom,  the 
promenaders  on  the  street  or  In  the  square.  And 
she  had  fooled  him  through  personal  contact,  in- 
nocently, perhaps,  possibly  with  calculations,  prob- 
ably half  of  each,  to  commit  a  weak  action,  for 
which  she  was  worshiped. 

But  now  he  must  win  her,  therefore  he  pocketed 
all  of  his  reflections;  he  saw  In  an  instant  that 
through  this  medium  he  could  pass  his  Ideas  and 
schemes  down  to  the  horde,  that  through  this  con- 
ductor he  could  move  the  masses  and  force  upon 
them  his  benefactions,  make  them  his  vassals,  and 
that  he  could  afterwards  sit  and  smile  like  a  God 
at  their  foolishness,  when  they  believed  that  they 
themselves  had  created  their  happiness,  but  were 
only  pregnant  with  his  thoughts,  his  schemes,  were 
eating  the  dregs  from  his  great  brewage,  the 
strong  malt  drink  which  would  never  reach  their 
lips.  For  what  did  he  care  if  these  deserted 
skerries  supported  a  half  starving,  superfluous 
population  or  not.  What  compassion  could  he 
feel  for  his  natural  enemies  who  represented  the 
inert  mass,  that  had  lain  smothering  his  life,  im- 
peding his  growth,  who  were  themselves  lacking 
in  every  trace  of  pity  for  each  other,  and  who 
with  the  fury  of  wild  beasts  persecuted  their  bene- 
factors whose  only  revenge  was  new  benedictions. 


ii6  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

It  would  be  his  great  and  strong  enjoyment  to 
s'lt  unobserved,  regarded  as  an  Idiot,  and  guide 
these  peoples'  fates,  while  they  believed  that  they 
had  subdued  him,  cut  off  his  connections,  tied  his 
hands.  He  would  strike  them  with  blindness, 
pervert  the  vision  of  the  fools,  that  they  should 
believe  themselves  to  be  his  superiors  and  he  their 
servant. 

While  these  thoughts  gathered  and  grew  into  a 
strong  decision,  there  was  a  knock  at  the  door, 
and  at  the  Commissioner's  "  come  in,"  the  sur- 
veyor appeared  to  deliver  an  invitation  to  tea 
from  the  ladies. 

The  commissioner  accepted  it,  and  sent  his 
thanks. 

After  he  had  arranged  his  toilet  and  thought 
over  what  to  say  and  what  not  to  say,  he  went 
down. 

On  the  porch  he  was  met  by  Miss  Mary,  who 
with  an  excessive  warmth  took  his  hands  and 
pressed  them,  saying  with  emotion: 

*'  Thanks  for  what  you  did  for  the  poor 
woman  1     It  was  noble,  it  was  grand!  " 

"  No,  madam,  it  was  neither,"  replied  the  com- 
missioner hastily;  "  for  on  my  side  It  was  a  bad 
action  which  I  regret  and  it  was  dictated  only 
from  politeness  to  you." 

"  You  malign  yourself  from  pure  politeness, 
and  I  should  appreciate  much  more  a  little  sincer- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  117 

ity,"  replied  the  lady,  and  at  the  same  moment 
the  mother  appeared. 

"  Oh!  You  are  a  good  child,"  interrupted  the 
mother  in  a  tone  of  the  most  immovable  convic- 
tion, and  bade  the  commissioner  step  into  the  best 
room  where  tea  was  ready  to  serve. 

To  avoid  engaging  in  an  endless  conversation 
he  went  in.  He  saw  at  a  glance  how  the  plain 
furniture  of  the  fisherman's  cottage  had  been 
mixed  with  remnants  of  worn  city  luxury.  On 
the  bureau  had  been  placed  alabaster  vases  yel- 
lowish from  age,  photographs  in  the  windows  be- 
tween the  flowers;  on  one  side  of  the  fireplace 
stood  an  arm  chair  with  figured  cretonne  and 
brass  tacks,  a  few  books  on  a  center  table  round 
a  parlor  lamp. 

It  was  neatly  arranged,  but  with  a  careful 
mathematical  exactness,  everything  symmetrical 
but  still  a  little  awry  and  askance  where  it  was  in- 
tended to  be  straight.  The  tea  set  of  old  Saxony 
china  ^ith  gold  edges  and  cherry  red  monograms 
was  cracked  here  and  there  and  the  teapot  cover 
had  been  mended  with  clasps.  After  he  had 
studied  the  portrait  of  the  deceased  father  of  the 
family  without  daring  to  ask  what  position  he  had 
held,  he  saw  that  he  had  been  a  government  offi- 
cial, and  he  understood  that  here  was  paiivres 
honteux.  In  further  looking  around  the  room,  he 
noticed  a  knapsack  left  under  a  table  and  bearing 


ii8  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

a  tag  which  indicated  that  the  old  lady  was  the 
widow  of  a  councilor  of  the  exchequer. 

At  first  the  conversation  touched  the  objects 
that  presented  themselves  to  the  eyes,  and  then 
passed  on  to  the  event  of  the  day,  coming  finally 
to  the  people.  The  commissioner  saw  at  once 
that  the  ladles  were  interested  in  the  affairs  of 
other  people  and  lived  in  a  morbid  uneasiness  for 
the  welfare  of  the  lower  classes.  As  he  had  ob- 
served that  his  sincerity  had  offended  and  the  pur- 
pose of  his  visit  was  not  to  hurt  their  feelings  by 
giving  them  his  ideas,  he  laid  to  and  let  himself 
drift.  Sometimes  his  resentment  was  aroused 
and  he  would  venture  a  little  remark  or  informa- 
tion, but  he  felt  at  once  as  though  soft  hands  were 
placed  on  his  mouth,  and  round  arms  wound  about 
his  neck,  so  that  the  words  were  smothered.  Be- 
sides, the  views  here  were  so  rooted,  everything 
so  fixed,  and  all  questions  settled,  that  they  only 
smiled  in  a  friendly  way,  with  mild  forbearings, 
when  they  read  a  doubt  in  him  regarding  their 
axioms.  Then  the  conversation  turned  to  the 
moral  and  spiritual  condition  of  the  population, 
and  here  the  commissioner  perfectly  agreed  with 
them.  He  delineated  with  fervor  the  rudeness  of 
the  forenoon  with  its  drunkenness  and  fray,  pity- 
ing the  want  of  enlightenment,  and  finally  nar- 
rating scenes  which  betrayed  complete  paganism. 
He  spoke  of  how  the  fishermen  cast  offerings  on 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  119 

stones,  loaded  their  guns  with  lead  from  church 
windows,  how  they  talked  about  Thor's  bucks 
when  it  thundered,  and  of  Oden's  wild  hunt  when 
the  gray  geese  came  in  the  spring,  and  how  those 
on  the  inner  islands  let  the  magpies  destroy  the 
chickens  for  the  people  did  not  dare  to  tear  down 
the  nests  from  fear  of  unknown  avengers. 

"  Yes,"  completed  the  old  lady,  "  it  isn't  their 
fault,  and  if  they  were  not  so  far  from  the  church, 
it  would  be  entirely  different." 

Thither  the  commissioner's  thoughts  had  not 
gone,  but  in  an  instant  he  saw  what  a  great  power 
he  would  get  as  an  ally,  and  developing  the  seed 
of  thought  he  had  got  in  the  morning  from  ob- 
serving the  divine  service  on  board  the  navy 
steamer,  he  burst  out  with  real  rapture : 

"  Well,  but  one  can  build  a  meeting  house  at 
small  cost.  Just  think  of  it,  if  I  should  address  a 
letter  to  the  Home  Mission  Institute." 

The  ladies  embraced  the  subject  with  the  great- 
est ardor  and  promised  themselves  to  write  to 
that  institution  and  some  societies  and  projected  a 
fair,  but  recollected  that  here  was  no  dancing  pub- 
lic. 

The  commissioner  removed  all  difficulties  by 
offering  to  advance  the  money  and  provide  the 
building,  which  could  be  bought  ready  made  at 
the  factory,  if  the  ladies  would  only  find  a 
preacher.     "  Yet,"  added  he,  "  one  ought  to  se- 


I20  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

lect  for  this  place  now  at  the  beginning,  one  of 
the  stern  kind,  who  can  lay  hold  of  the  people 
and  produce  a  revival  movement  of  the  most  ear- 
nest nature,  for  no  half  measures  will  do  here." 

The  ladles  made  mild  objections  and  recom- 
mended charitable  means,  but  the  commissioner 
showed,  how  fear  was  the  elementary  foundation 
on  which  to  build  a  first  education;  afterwards  one 
could  come  with  love. 

A  great  common  interest  had  welded  these 
souls  together,  while  they  overheated  themselves 
at  the  great  fire  of  love,  and  worked  themselves 
up  to  an  overflov/ing  omni-benevolence  towards 
every  living  thing,  pressed  each  other's  hands 
and  separated  with  blessings  and  congratulations 
that  fate  had  brought  together  three  good  people, 
who  would  work  unanimously  for  the  good  of  hu- 
manity. 

When  the  commissioner  came  out,  he  shook 
himself,  as  though  to  clear  off  some  dust,  and  felt 
as  when  he  had  visited  a  flour  mill,  and  taken  de- 
light in  seeing  all  objects  coated  with  the  soft, 
white  tone  of  flour,  v/hich  harmonized  Iron,  wood, 
linen  and  glass  In  one  accord,  and  the  same  feel- 
ing of  subdued  pleasure  as  In  touching  locks, 
banisters  and  sacks  powdered  with  a  soft  dust 
of  flour,  but  had  at  the  same  time  found  it  hard 
to  breathe,  obliged  to  cough  and  to  take  out  a 
handkerchief. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  121 

Nevertheless  it  had  been  a  pleasant  evening. 
This  imperceptible  radiation  of  warmth  from  the 
mother  which  thawed  the  frigid  thoughts,  this 
atmosphere  of  cordiality  and  childishness  in  the 
young  woman,  which  made  him  grow  young  again, 
this  childish  belief  in  that  which  in  his  youth  was 
the  naive  idea  of  the  day  to  lift  up  that  which  was 
cast  down,  to  protect  what  was  dwarfed,  sick  and 
frail,  all  of  which  he  now  knew  was  directly 
against  everything  that  could  promote  humanity's 
happiness  and  increase,  and  which  he  hated  from 
instinct,  when  he  saw  how  all  strength,  every  burst 
of  originality  was  persecuted  by  the  unfortunate. 
And  now  he  would  form  an  alliance  with  them 
against  himself,  work  to  his  own  destruction, 
lower  himself  to  their  level,  dissemble  feeling  for 
the  enemy,  bestow  the  war  cash  on  the  antago- 
nists. The  thought  of  the  enjoyment  these  proofs 
of  power  would  give  intoxicated  him,  and  he 
turned  his  footsteps  towards  the  beach  that  in 
the  solitude  he  might  recall  himself.  And  when 
he  now  in  the  still,  mild  summer  night  wandered 
on  the  sand,  where  he  recognized  his  own  foot- 
steps from  previous  days,  where  he  knew  every 
stone  and  could  tell  where  this  or  that  herb  grew, 
he  noticed  that  everything  looked  differently,  had 
assumed  a  new  form  and  gave  entirely  different 
impressions  than  when  he  had  walked  there  the 
day  before.     A  change  had  occurred,  something 


122  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

new  had  intervened.  He  could  no  longer  evolve 
the  great  feeling  of  solitude,  where  he  had  felt 
as  though  alone  before  nature  and  humanity,  for 
somebody  stood  at  his  side  or  behind  him.  The 
isolation  was  abolished,  and  he  was  soldered  to 
the  little  banal  life,  threads  had  been  spun  round 
his  soul,  considerations  began  to  bind  his  thoughts, 
and  the  cowardly  fear  of  harboring  other 
thoughts  than  those  his  friends  harbored  clutched 
him.  To  build  happiness  on  a  false  foundation 
he  dared  not,  for  If  he  had  it  all  hewn  even  to 
the  ridge  pole  it  might  sometime  tumble,  and  then 
the  fall  would  be  greater,  the  grief  deeper,  and 
still  it  must  come  to  pass  If  he  would  own  her, 
and  that  he  would  do  with  all  the  mighty  power 
of  a  mature  man.  Lift  her  up  to  him?  But 
how  to  do  it?  Not  that  he  could  make  her  from 
woman  to  man,  or  redeem  her  from  the  uncurable 
propensities  her  sex  had  given  her.  Not  that  he 
could  give  her  his  own  education  which  had  taken 
him  thirty  years  to  acquire,  nor  could  he  give  her 
the  same  evolution  he  had  passed  through,  the 
experiences  and  the  knowledge  he  had  battled  for 
and  won.  Therefore  he  must  sink  down  to  her, 
but  the  thought  of  this  sinking  tormented  him  as 
the  greatest  possible  evil,  as  sinking,  going  down, 
beginning  over  again,  which  besides  was  impossi- 
ble. It  only  remained  for  him  to  make  himself 
double,  split  himself  in  two,  create  a  personality, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  123 

intelligible  and  easy  of  access  to  her,  play  the 
duped  lover,  learn  to  admire  her  Inferiority,  get 
used  to  a  role  as  she  liked  to  have  It,  and  so  In 
silence  live  the  other  half  of  his  life  In  secret  and 
to  himself,  sleep  with  one  eye  and  keep  the  other 
open. 

He  had  mounted  the  skerry  without  observing 
It.  And  now  he  saw  the  lights  down  In  the  fish- 
ing village  and  heard  wild  shrieks,  the  cries  of 
jubilee  over  the  beaten  foe,  who  wotild  raise  their 
children  and  their  children's  children  from  pov- 
erty, save  them  labor,  give  them  new  enjoyments. 
Once  again  there  awoke  In  him  the  desire  to  see 
these  savages  tamed,  to  see  these  worshipers  of 
Thor  kneeling  for  the  white  Christ,  the  giants 
falling  before  the  pale  Asas.  The  barbarian 
must  pass  through  Christianity  as  a  purgatory, 
learn  veneration  for  the  power  of  the  spirit  in 
the  frail  bundles  of  muscles,  the  remainder  of 
the  wandering  tribes  must  have  their  middle  age 
before  they  can  reach  the  renaissance  of  thinking 
and  revolution  of  action. 

Here  should  the  chapel  be  raised  on  the  high- 
est ridge  of  the  skerry  and  its  little  spire  point 
upwards  over  the  look-out  and  flag  pole  to  greet 
the  sailors  at  long  distance  as  a  reminder  of  .  .  . 
Here  he  stopped  and  reflected.  With  a  look  of 
scorn  on  his  pale  face,  he  bent  over  and  picked  up 
four  gneiss  scales,  which  he  laid  In  a  rectangle 


124  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

from  east  to  west,  after  having  measured  thirty 
steps  in  length  and  twenty  in  breadth. 

"  What  an  excellent  landmark  for  the  sailors!  " 
he  thought  as  he  descended  the  hill  and  went  home 
to  bed. 


CHAPTER  SIXTH 

The  commissioner  had  confined  himself  to  his 
room  two  days  to  work,  and  when  on  the  morning 
of  the  third  day  he  went  out  for  a  stroll  on  the 
beach,  he  met  by  chance  the  widow  of  the  de- 
ceased officer  of  the  exchequer.  She  had  an  anx- 
ious look,  and  when  the  commissioner  Inquired 
after  her  daughter's  health,  he  learned  that  she 
was  indisposed. 

"  It  is  lack  of  entertainment,"  said  he  at  ran- 
dom. 

"  Yes,  but  what  shall  one  do  in  this  solitude?  " 
responded  the  anxious  mother. 

"  The  lady  must  go  out  to  sea,  fishing  and 
yachting  and  get  exercise,"  prescribed  he  without 
thinking  of  what  he  said. 

"Oh,  yes,"  continued  the  mother;  "but  my 
poor  Mary  cannot  go  alone." 

As  there  was  only  one  reply,  he  answered : 

"  If  it  would  please  the  ladies  to  have  my  com- 
pany I  shall  be  glad  to  be  of  service  to  you." 

The  mother  found  him  very  good  and  accepted 
the  offer,  saying  that  she  would  at  once  tell  Mary 
to  dress. 

I2S 


126  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

The  commissioner  went  down  to  the  harbor  to 

outfit  the  boat,  and  on  the  way  his  steps  began  to 
falter,  as  though  going  down  hill,  where  the 
weight  pushed  him  faster  than  he  would  go.  He 
felt  reluctant  at  having  been  so  suddenly  put  in 
motion  by  an  outside  power,  before  he  had  had 
time  for  deliberation,  and  now  he  would  make 
resistance  but  could  not.  It  was  too  late  and  he 
let  himself  drift,  conscious  that  nevertheless  he 
would  always  tend  the  rudder  and  determine  the 
course. 

He  had  hoisted  the  jib  on  his  Bleking  boat, 
shipped  the  rudder  and  loosened  the  bowline 
ready  to  be  cast  off,  when  Mademoiselle  and  her 
mother  appeared  on  the  beach.  The  girl  was 
dressed  in  an  ultra-marine  blue  gown  with  white 
trimmings  and  wore  a  blue  scotch  woolen  cap 
which  was  very  becoming  and  gave  her  something 
of  a  boyish,  brisk  expression,  totally  unlike  the 
angelic  one  she  had  shown  a  few  days  before. 

As  the  commissioner  greeted  her  and  asked 
after  her  health,  he  offered  his  hand  to  help  them 
on  board.  The  girl  took  the  outstretched  hand 
and  with  a  light  bound  was  In  the  boat,  where  she 
was  placed  in  the  stern  at  the  tiller,  but  when 
afterwards  the  same  hand  was  reached  to  the 
mother,  she  explained  that  she  could  not  accom- 
pany them  as  she  must  prepare  the  dinner.  The 
commissioner,  who  was  suddenly  surprised,   felt 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  127 

again  the  desire  to  make  resistance  against  this 
soft  power  which  led  him  where  he  would  not  go, 
but  was  kept  from  doing  so  by  the  fear  of  seem- 
ing ill-bred;  so  after  a  short  regret  that  he  must 
spare  the  agreeable  company  of  the  mother,  he 
threw  off  the  bowline  and  commanding  Miss 
Mary  to  throw  over  the  tiller,  he  put  the  main 
sheet  in  her  hand  and  hoisted  the  sail. 

"  But  I  cannot  manage  a  boat,"  cried  the  girl; 
"  I  have  never  had  my  hand  on  a  tiller!  " 

"  It  is  no  art!  Do  only  as  I  tell  you  and  you 
will  at  once  be  able  to  navigate  a  boat,"  replied 
the  commissioner  as  he  placed  himself  in  front 
of  the  girl  and  helped  her  with  the  maneuvering. 

A  light  soft  breeze  was  blowing  and  the  boat 
glided  out  of  the  harbor  with  the  wind  abeam. 

The  commissioner  held  the  jib  sheet  and  began 
by  instructing  the  beautiful  navigator,  grasping 
every  now  and  then  her  wrists  and  pressing  the 
tiller  to  windward,  until  they  were  clear  of  land, 
had  speedway  and  were  lying  on  the  tack  they 
were  to  keep  to  until  they  reached  the  skerries. 

The  responsibility,  the  effort  and  the  feeling  of 
controlling  the  boat  which  held  two  lives,  awoke 
the  numb  powers  in  the  woman's  frail  form,  and 
her  eyes  which  attentively  followed  the  position 
of  the  sails  were  glowing  with  courage  and  re- 
liance, when  she  saw  how  the  boat  obeyed  the 
slightest  pressure  of  the  hand.     If  she  committed 


nS  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

a  fault,  he  corrected  it  with  a  kind  word,  gave  her 
courage  to  continue  by  praising  her  watchfulness, 
removed  difficulties  through  explaining  the  whole 
proceeding  as  something  that  clears  itself. 

She  was  radiant  with  happiness,  and  com- 
menced to  talk  of  the  past,  of  her  thirty-four 
years  of  life,  how  she  had  believed  life  and  the 
desire  of  living  was  past,  how  she  felt  herself 
young  again,  how  she  had  always  dreamed  of  a 
life  of  activity,  of  manly  activity  above  all  else, 
and  to  devote  her  powers  to  humanity,  to  others. 
She  knev/  that  she  as  a  woman  was  a  pariah  .  .  . 

The  commissioner  listened  to  the  whole  as  to 
well-known  secrets,  formulas  of  an  absurd  strug- 
gle to  make  that  equal  which  nature  had  made 
purposely  as  unequal  as  possible,  to  spare  human- 
ity labor,  but  to  answer  this  nov/  he  regarded  as 
without  reward  and  he  stuck  to  his  role  as  an 
appreciative  listener,  allowing  her  to  give  vent 
to  her  diseased  imaginations  which  the  fresh  wind 
would  blow  away.  Instead  of  taking  out  a  knife 
and  cutting  off  the  tangled  skeins  which  her  con- 
fused thoughts  offered  to  him,  he  would  simply 
pretend  not  to  notice  them,  but  tuck  them  under 
and  through  gathering  impressions  which  he  pur- 
posely developed,  wind  on  the  old  tangles  and 
use  them  as  bobbins,  which  should  only  serve  as 
an  underlayer  for  the  new  yarn,  spun  out  from 
his  rich  distaff. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  129 

In  haste  he  improvised  a  scheme,  how  using  the 
material  which  the  skerries  afforded  for  object 
lessons,  he  would  In  living  pictures,  without  her 
observing  It,  In  a  few  hours  let  her  pass  through 
sensations  which  she  should  believe  came  from 
without,  and  In  such  a  manner  he  would  smuggle 
his  soul's  net  over  her,  and  tune  her  strings  in 
harmony  to  his  Instrument.  With  a  movement 
of  the  head  he  nowi  signified  that  the  boat  should 
tack,  he  slacked  the  sheet  a  little,  and  the  boat 
cleared  land  and  dashed  out  on  the  open  sea. 
The  wide  horizon,  the  infinite  sea  of  light  vv^here 
no  object  intervened,  threw  a  light  over  her  beau- 
tiful face,  the  small  lineaments  were  as  magnified, 
half  perceptible  wrinkles  were  smoothed  out,  the 
whole  expression  assumed  the  character  of  free- 
dom from  daily  cares,  paltry  thoughts,  and  the 
eye  that  In  one  moment  could  overlook  such  a  big 
part  of  the  earth's  body  seemed  to  see  on  a  grand 
scale,  so  that  the  little  self  swelled  and  felt  its 
relative  power,  and  when  now  the  long  sea  waves 
slowly  raised  and  lowered  the  boat  In  powerful 
rhythm,  he  saw  how  transport  was  mixed  with  a 
grain  of  fear,  which  kept  it  in  check. 

The  commissioner,  who  observed  that  the  grand 
scenery  did  not  fail  In  its  Impression,  concluded 
now  to  place  the  text  under  the  frail  music  of  the 
swells  of  the  senses,  and  guide  her  dawning 
thoughts    out   on   the   great   highway,    he    would 


I30  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

loosen  the  tegument  on  the  swelling  seed,  so  that 
the  plantlet  would  push  out. 

"  It  has  the  effect  of  a  planet!  "  Improvised  he. 
"  The  earth,  the  banal,  the  tiresome,  the  moldy, 
becomes  a  celestial  body.  Do  we  not  feel  as 
though  we  were  already  participants  of  heaven, 
when  the  opposition  Is  dissolved,  the  false  oppo- 
sition between  heaven  and  earth,  which  are  one, 
like  the  part  and  the  whole.  Don't  you  observe 
how  you  grow  instead  of  shrink  when  you  outwit 
the  wind  and  make  it  take  you  to  the  right  when 
it  wants  to  go  to  the  left?  Don't  you  feel  what 
great  power  is  within  you,  as  you  ride  upon  a 
wave,  when  it  with  a  thousand  pounds  of  weight 
would  press  you  down  Into  its  depth?  He,  who 
is  supposed  to  have  created  the  wings  of  the 
birds,  and  who  needed  fifty  thousand  years  to 
make  a  flyer  out  of  a  creeper,  was  less  quick  than 
he  who  for  the  first  time  put  canvas  on  a  pole  and 
instantly  Invented  navigation. 

"  Is  it  then  so  strange  If  man  created  God  out 
of  his  own  Image,  conceiving  from  his  Ingenuity 
one  still  more  Ingenious?  " 

The  girl  having  listened  attentively  to  his  ef- 
fusion, regarded  his  face  uninterruptedly  as  If  she 
had  turned  her  own  towards  a  fire  to  warm  it. 
The  unusual  words  she  heard  seemed  to  have 
sunk  into  her  mind  and  acted  as  a  leaven.  Be- 
numbed, lulled  by  the  soft,  persuading  Intonation, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  131 

she  received  without  deliberation  the  new  views 
he  gave  to  her  previously  lifeless  and  monotonous 
landscape,  of  the  origin  of  life  and  its  meaning, 
and  without  seeing  that  her  own  religious  convic- 
tion was  buried  before  dissolution,  she  took  up 
the  new  and  piled  it  upon  the  old. 

"  I  never  before  heard  anyone  speak  as  you 
do,"  she  said  dreamily;  "  speak  morel  " 

He  kept  silent  and  with  a  new  motion  he  gave 
the  boat  another  course. 

They  approached  Svartbodan's  sinister  vol- 
i:anic  formation.  The  black  sparkling  diorite 
with  its  death-white  landmark,  called  "  the  white 
mare,"  looked  still  more  strikingly  awful  in  the 
jiun's  rays,  which  in  vain  tried  to  lighten  the  ex- 
treme tones  of  its  black  and  white. 

A  cloud  passed  over  the  girl's  face,  her  expres- 
sion shrunk,  the  eyebrows  contracted  in  rolls  as 
though  they  would  drop  down  and  shut  out  the  de- 
pressing picture.  A  visible  movement  on  the 
tiller  signified  that  she  would  fall  off  from  the 
skerry,  but  he  gave  the  boat  its  course  forwards, 
and  with  the  wind's  compressed  power  sped  it 
into  the  ravine  between  the  black  cliffs  where  the 
sighing  waves  sucked  it  forwards. 

It  became  silent  in  the  boat,  and  the  commis- 
jloner  would  not  try  to  guess  at  the  gloomy  recol- 
lection that  awoke  in  his  companion,  but  limited 
himself  to  pointing  to  the  bleached  white  skeleton 


132  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

of  a  long  tailed  duck,  which  was  still  left  on  the 
black  ledge. 

And  the  wind  took  the  sails  again,  filled  them 
and  wafted  the  boat  out  onto  the  open  sea. 

They  passed  the  rock  with  its  single  mountain 
ash  and  its  wagtail  and  approached  Sword  Island 
where  he  for  the  first  time  had  seen  her.  There 
they  landed  and  he  guided  her  the  same  way  that 
he  had  passed  that  Sunday  morning,  and  let  her 
receive  the  same  impressions  that  he  had  felt,  led 
her  down  into  the  blooming  field  and  showed  her 
where,  looking  between  the  wild  buckthorns, 
he  had  seen  her  for  the  first  time. 

She  was  now  in  a  wanton  mood  because  all 
these  small  observations,  even  the  details  of  the 
circumstances,  had  remained  in  his  memory  and 
must  signify  that  he  Was  smitten.  She  laughed 
when  he  spoke  of  the  first  time  he  had  heard  her 
cough,  and  in  a  playful  humor  she  told  him  to  go 
down  to  the  same  place  and  speak  and  she  would 
guess  who  it  was  that  spoke. 

He  obeyed,  and  jumping  down  from  the  rocky 
footstool  placed  himself  behind  the  white  beam 
trees  and  imitated  the  bellowing  of  a  bull. 

"  Nay,  how  beautiful  he  can  sing,"  joked  the 
girl.     "  It  is  surely  a  Hottentot  actor." 

The  commissioner,  who  found  pleasure  In  her 
childishness  and  had  not  played  with  children  for 
many  years,  continued  the  role  and  stepping  out 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  133 

on  the  green  field  with  his  coat  turned  Inside  out 
and  the  lorgnette  hanging  on  one  ear,  he  im- 
provised a  savage  dance  accompanied  by  a  song 
that  he  had  heard  Hottentots  sing  in  the  Jardin 
d'AcclImatation. 

The  girl  seemed  both  surprised  and  amused. 

"  Do  you  know,"  said  she,  "  I  much  prefer  you 
like  that  when  I  see  that  you  can  be  human  for  a 
moment  and  put  aside  that  philosophical  face?" 

"  Is  a  Hottentot  then  more  of  a  human  being  in 
your  eyes  than  a  philosopher?"  let  fall  the  com- 
missioner, but  at  once  regretting  that  he  had 
aroused  her  to  consciousness,  he  broke  a  branch 
from  the  white  beam  tree,  and  wove  a  wreath  and 
gave  it  to  the  girl  who  had  become  sober  when 
she  saw  she  had  betrayed  herself  by  committing 
such  extreme  stupidity. 

"  Now  you  shall  wreathe  the  victim,  Miss 
Mary,"  said  the  commissioner  as  a  cover.  "  I 
wish  instead  of  one  I  were  a  hundred  and  per- 
mitted to  go  as  a  hecatomb  to  the  slaughter  for 
you." 

Kneeling  he  received  the  wreath  from  the  paci- 
fied beauty,  whereupon  he  started  on  a  run  towards 
the  beach  with  the  girl  after  him. 

Down  at  the  water's  edge  they  stopped. 

"Shall  we  throw  skipping  stones?"  proposed 
she. 


134  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

"  If  you  please,"  answered  he  and  selected  a 
flat  stone. 

They  threw  stones  out  over  the  water  a  few 
moments  until  they  became  warm. 

"Shall  we  take  a  bath?"  suddenly  exclaimed 
the  girl,  as  if  she  had  for  a  long  time  hatched  the 
thought  which  must  now  come  out. 

The  commissioner  did  not  know  where  he  was, 
whether  it  was  a  joke  or  a  project  coming  in  earn- 
est, with  the  mental  reservation  of  keeping  on 
part  of  the  clothing,  or  for  one  of  the  parties  to 
withdraw. 

"  You  take  a  bath  and  I  will  go  on  farther," 
he  found  this  the  only  thing  to  answer. 

"Don't  you  bathe  then?"  asked  the  girl. 

"  No,  I  have  no  bathing  suit  with  me,"  an- 
swered the  commissioner;  "  and  besides,  I  do  not 
bathe  in  cold  water." 

"  Ha,  ha,  ha  !  "  rang  a  cold,  disagreeable,  scorn- 
ful laugh  from  the  girl's  throat.  "  You,  afraid 
of  cold  water,"  sneered  she;  "perhaps  you  can- 
not swim?  " 

"  Cold  water  is  too  coarse  for  my  fine  nerves. 
If  you  will  take  a  cold  bath  here  I  will  go  to  the 
northern  point  and  take  a  warm  one." 

The  girl  had  already  pushed  off  her  shoes  and 
throwing  a  look  of  disdain  and  injured  vanity  at 
him,  she  said: 

"I  suppose  you  cannot  see  me  from  there?" 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  135 

"  Not  unless  you  swim  out  too  far,"  answered 
the  commissioner  and  went  away. 

When  he  had  reached  the  northern  slope  of  the 
islet,  he  searched  for  a  cleft  in  the  rock,  which 
was  protected  from  the  northern  wind  by  a  rocky 
wall  agout  fifty  feet  high.  The  black  hornblende 
gneiss  was  as  polished  as  agate  by  the  waves  and 
curved  in  frail  delicate  rolls  which  resembled  the 
muscles  of  the  human  body  and  clung  to  the  bare 
feet  soft  as  a  bolster.  No  breath  of  wind  reached 
here,  and  the  sun  had  burned  six  hours  against 
the  dark  ledge  so  that  the  air  was  heated  several 
degrees  above  body  temperature,  and  the  stones 
almost  burned  beneath  his  feet.  He  had  been 
down  to  the  boat  and  brought  an  ax  with  which 
he  now  cut  off  the  driest  heath  and  sand  oats  and 
made  up  a  blazing  fire  on  the  rock;  In  the  mean- 
time he  undressed.  When  the  fire  had  quickly 
burned  out  he  swept  the  ledge  clean  as  a  baker's 
oven,  and  with  a  bailer  poured  the  crystal  sea 
water  over  the  heated  stones  and  let  the  vapors 
lap  his  nude  body.  Then  he  placed  himself  in 
one  of  the  arm  chairs  which  the  sea  had  sculptured 
from  the  cliffs,  wrapped  a  blanket  round  him  and 
with  his  knees  crouched  under  his  chin  shut  his 
eyes  and  seemed  to  fall  asleep.  But  he  did  not 
sleep;  he  used  this  method  as  he  called  it  to  wind 
himself  up  and  for  a  few  moments  let  his  brain 
rest  and  resume  its  elasticity.     For  it  was  too 


136  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

much  of  an  affort  to  fit  himself  into  companion- 
ship with  the  confused  thoughts  of  others.  His 
mechanism  of  thought  suffered  by  contact  with 
others,  so  that  it  wavered  and  became  unreliable 
as  the  compass  needle  in  the  presence  of  Iron. 
Each  time  he  would  think  clearly  about  some- 
thing or  form  a  conclusion,  he  placed  his  soul  in 
harmonious  numbness  by  a  warm  bath,  extin- 
guished consciousness  in  a  half  slumber  for  a  brief 
moment  by  not  thinking,  during  which  time  all 
the  received  observation  material  seemed  to  be- 
come melted,  and  afterwards  when  he  extinguished 
the  fire  and  awoke  himself  to  consciousness  the 
alloy  welled  up. 

When  he  had  sat  a  moment  and  the  sun  had 
warmed  him  through,  he  suddenly  arose  and  stood 
as  though  awakened  after  having  slept  a  whole 
night.  His  thoughts  labored  again,  and  he  looked 
happy,  just  as  though  he  had  solved  a  problem. 

"She  is  thirty- four  years,"  he  thought;  "this 
I  had  forgotten  under  the  impression  of  her  youth- 
ful beauty,  therefore  this  chaos  of  past  stages, 
these  parts  of  roles  she  has  successively  played 
in  life,  this  mass  of  shifting  reflexes  from  men 
that  she  had  tried  to  win  and  fit  herself  to.  Now 
lately  she  must  have  been  wrecked  in  some  love 
affair.  He,  who  had  held  together  all  these  rag 
pieces  of  a  soul,  had  turned  aside,  the  sack  had 
rent  and  now  the  whole  thing  lay  as  a  pile  of  rag- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  137 

picker's  rubbish.  She  had  shown  sample  pieces 
of  the  romantic  parsonage  of  1850  with  a  re- 
gurgitation from  the  beginning  of  the  century  for 
saving  humanity,  zealous  faith  from  '  The  Dove's 
Voice,'  and  '  The  Pietist's '  streams  of  conjunc- 
ture, cynicisms  from  George  Sand  and  the  an- 
drogynal  period.  To  search  the  bottom  of  this 
sieve  through  which  so  many  soups  had  passed, 
to  solve  the  enigma  which  was  not  one,  he  was  too 
prudent  to  spend  time  on.  Here  only  remained 
to  pick  out  of  the  heap  of  bones  that  which  was 
suitable  to  form  the  skeleton,  which  he  would 
afterwards  cover  with  living  flesh  and  blow  his 
breath  into.  But  this  she  must  not  observe  for 
then  she  would  not  permit  It.  She  must  never 
see  how  she  was  held  by  him  for  that  would  only 
raise  hate  and  resistance.  He  would  grow  un- 
derneath the  ground  as  the  rhizome,  and  graft 
her  on  himself  that  she  would  shoot  up,  show  her- 
self to  the  world  and  bear  the  flower  which  hu- 
manity should  admire." 

Now  he  heard  the  mew^  cry  and  understood 
that  she  had  swam  out  from  shore.  Therefore 
he  dressed  quickly  and  after  he  had  gathered  up 
his  belongings  he  took  from  under  the  sheets  of 
the  boat  material  for  a  small  breakfast  and  laid 
it  out  on  the  moss  under  an  arborescent  pine  which 
resembled  an  Italian  stone  pine. 

There  was  not  a  great  variety,  but  everything 


138  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

was  costly,  choice  and  served  on  the  remnants  of 
a  collection  of  porcelain  which  he  at  one  time  had 
begun  to  gather.  The  butter  shone  egg  yellow 
In  a  serpentine  dish  with  screw  cover  that  stood 
in  a  fragment  of  Henry  II  faience  filled  with  ice, 
the  crackers  lay  on  a  lattice-braided  dish  of  Marie- 
berg  and  the  sardels  were  on  a  saucer  of  blue 
mottled  Nevers.  Fear  of  the  general  banality 
breaking  forth  in  arts,  industry  and  daily  life, 
had  urged  the  owner  to  the  modern  search  after 
the  unusual,  the  dreadful  triviality  of  the  present 
age  and  its  hate  of  originality  had  forced  him  like 
so  many  others  into  superrefinement  to  try  to  save 
his  personality  from  being  ground  among  the 
bowlders  in  the  big  glacial  flow.  His  finely  de- 
veloped senses  did  not  search  after  frugal  beauty 
in  shape  and  color,  which  so  easily  grows  old;  he 
would  see  history  and  memories  of  exploits  from 
the  world  in  that  which  surrounded  him.  This 
fragment  of  Henry  II  faience,  with  its  cream 
white  pipe-clay  incrusted  with  red,  black  and  yel- 
low, aroused  memories  of  the  beautiful  Loire 
landscape  with  its  renaissance  castles,  while  its 
ornamental  bookbinding  style  reminded  of 
Madame  Helene  de  Genlis  and  her  librarian,  who 
together  with  a  potter  pressed  out  a  style,  purely 
personal,  which  still  could  not  escape  the  coloring 
of  the  century  of  chivalry,  when  beauty  in  life  was 
venerated  and  even  the  trade  was  subordinate  to 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  139 

science  and  art,  realizing  the  advantageousness  of 
a  system  of  intellectual  rank. 

When  he  had  spread  breakfast  and  looked  at 
his  work  it  was  to  him  as  though  he  had  placed  a 
piece  of  culture  up  here  in  this  semi-arctic  wilder- 
ness, sardels  from  Brittany,  chestnuts  from  Anda- 
lusia, caviare  from  Volga,  cheese  from  the  Gru- 
yere  alps,  wurst  from  Thuringia,  crackers  from 
Britain  and  oranges  from  Asia  Minor.  There 
was  a  flask  in  basket  work  of  Chianti  wine  from 
Tuscany  to  be  served  in  goblets  with  Frederick 
I's  monogram  in  gold.  All  were  topsy-turvy 
without  a  savor  of  collector  or  museum ;  there  were 
slight  touches  of  color  thrown  in  here  and  there, 
like  flowers  pressed  as  souvenirs  between  the 
leaves  of  a  guide  book  but  not  In  a  herbarium. 

Now  hearing  the  voice  of  the  girl  cry  from  her 
bathing  place  a  halloo,  he  answered,  and  immedi- 
ately she  stepped  out  of  the  shrubs,  straight,  brisk 
and  radiating  with  health  and  the  joy  of  living. 
When  she  saw  the  breakfast  spread  she  raised  her 
cap  jokingly  with  a  bow,  impressed  against  her 
will  by  the  aristocratic  In  the  arrangement. 

"  You  are  a  wizard,"  said  she;  "  permit  me  to 
bow!" 

*'  Not  for  so  little,"  answered  the  commis- 
sioner. 

"  Yes,  you  indicate  that  you  can  do  more,  but 
to  rule  nature  as  you  lately  chattered  about,  that 


I40  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

will  be  beyond  you,"  opposed  the  girl  in  a  supe- 
rior motherly  tone. 

"  My  lady!  I  did  not  express  myself  so  cate- 
gorically; I  only  reminded  you  that  we  have  partly 
learned  how  to  subdue  the  powers  of  nature,  by 
which  we  are  partly  controlled  —  observe  the  lit- 
tle important  word  partly  —  and  that  it  is  in  our 
power  to  both  change  a  landscape's  character  and 
the  whole  soul  life  of  its  inhabitants." 

"  Good!  Conjure  up  an  Italian  landscape,  with 
marble  cottages  and  stone  pines,  out  of  this  dread- 
ful granite  paysage!" 

"  I  am  certainly  no  juggler,  but  if  you  chal- 
lenge me  I  promise  you  by  your  birthday,  in  three 
weeks  to  transform  this  fresh  piece  of  nature, 
whose  equal  you  may  search  after  through  all 
Europe,  to  a  treeless,  scorched  cabbage  landscape 
to  your  taste." 

"Well!  Let  us  wager!  And  if  after  three 
weeks  I  lose,  what  then?  " 

"Then  I  win  — but  what?" 

"We  will  see  then!" 

"  We  will  see !  But  will  you  attend  to  my 
'duty  during  that  time?" 

"Your  duty!  What  is  that?  To  lie  on  the 
sofa  and  smoke  cigarettes?" 

"  Yes,  if  you  can  as  I  attend  to  my  duty  on  the 
sofa, —  with  pleasure.  But  you  cannot  do  that 
and  now  you  shall  learn  the  reason  and  meaning 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  141 

of  my  stay  on  this  skerry!  But  first  take  a  glass 
of  wine  with  your  wurst!  " 

He  poured  a  glass  of  the  dark  red  Chianti  wine 
and  passed  it  to  the  girl  who  emptied  it  at  a 
draught. 

"  You  know,"  began  the  commissioner,  "  that 
my  official  commission  here  at  this  fishing  port  is 
to  teach  the  population  how  to  fish." 

"  It  must  be  a  nice  one,  you  who  brag  that  you 
have  never  had  a  tackle  in  your  hand." 

"  Don't  interrupt  me  —  I  shall  not  teach  them 
how  to  fish  with  tackle.  You  see,  things  are  thus, 
that  these  lingerers  are  conservative  as  all  rab- 
ble — " 

"  What  language  is  this?  "  interrupted  the  girl 
again. 

"  Plain  language !  However !  From  indis- 
cretion and  conservatism'  these  aboriginals  go  on 
undermining  their  own  interests  as  fish  eating 
mammals,  and  therefore  the  state  must  place  them 
under  guardians.  The  stromling  —  God  bless 
the  fish !  —  that  constitutes  the  most  important 
livelihood  of  these  autochthones,  threatens  to 
come  to  an  end.  Certainly  I  don't  care  at  all, 
if  a  few  hundred  ichthyophageus  more  or  less  in- 
crease or  diminish  a  superfluous  horde  of  people, 
it  is  completely  immaterial.  But  now  they  shall 
live  since  the  Acadamy  of  Agriculture  wishes  it, 
and  therefore  I  shall  hinder  them  from  fishing 


142  ON  THE  SEABOARD 


their  scanty  supply.  Is  this  acknowledged  log- 
ic?" 

"  It  is  inhuman,  but  you  are  made  of  material 
for  a  hangman!  " 

"  For  this  reason  I  have  on  my  own  accord, 
without  asking  for  the  decoration  of  Vasa  or  any 
kind  of  thanks,  found  out  a  new  means  of  sus- 
tenance which  shall  replace  the  old,  for  even  if 
the  stromling  should  shoal  for  half  a  man's  age 
after  the  fishermen  have  emigrated,  still  this 
means  of  sustenance  is  threatened  by  a  competi- 
tion, which  after  a  hundred  years  of  rest  has  again 
arisen  more  formidable  than  ever.  Do  you  know 
that  the  herring  will  return  to  the  coast  of  Bohus 
in  the  fall?" 

"  No,  I  haven't  had  any  letter  from  them  for 
a  long  time! " 

"  They  do  so  at  any  rate.  Therefore  we  must 
stop  the  stromling  fishing  and  fish  for  salmon  in- 
stead." 

"Salmon?     In  the  depth  of  the  sea?" 

"  Yes !  It  shall  be  found  there,  although  I 
haven't  seen  it.     Yet  you  shall  find  It  outl  " 

"But  if  it  isn't  there?" 

"  I  told  you  that  It  was  there  I  You  shall  only 
catch  the  first  one  and  then  salmon  fishing  Is 
open." 

"  But  how  do  you  know  salmon  exists  when  you 
haven't  seen  It?  "  argued  the  girl. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  143 

"  By  a  mass  of  Investigations  too  complicated 
to  explain  In  conversation,  partly  done  at 
sea  .  .  ." 

"Only  once!" 

"  I  work  as  quickly  as  twenty,  thanks  to  my 
superior  Intelligence  —  partly  on  my  sofa  but 
mostly  In  books.  Anyway,  will  you  Insist  to  de- 
stroy the  people,  first  with  salmon  and  afterwards 
with  a  mission  house  which  you  have  forgotten?  " 

"You  are  a  demon,  a  devil!"  exclaimed  the 
girl  between  scorn  and  earnestness. 

The  commissioner,  who  only  from  a  caprice 
had  turned  Into  skepticism,  and  now  saw  that  just 
this  made  the  most  impression,  found  It  best  to 
continue  this  role. 

"Surely  you  do  not  believe  in  God?"  asked 
the  girl  with  an  air,  as  though  she  would  eternally 
despise  him  If  he  answered  in  the  negative. 

"  No,  I  do  not." 

"  And  you  would  be  an  Ansgarius  and  intro- 
duce Christianity  on  the  skerry?" 

"  And  the  salmon !  Yes,  I  will  be  a  demoniac 
Ansgarius !  But  will  you  also  let  down  the  sal- 
mon trawl  and  be  blessed  by  the  revisors  of  the 
Reichstag?" 

"  Yes,  I  shall  work  for  these  people  whom  I 
believe  In,  I  shall  devote  my  feeble  powers  for  the 
oppressed,  and  I  shall  show  you  that  you  are  a 
blase,  a  roue  and  a  scorner  .  .  .  No,  you  are  not. 


144  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

but  you  make  yourself  out  worse  than  you  are  for 
you  are  a  good  child  anyway,  I  saw  that  last  Sun- 
day .  .  ." 

She  said  a  good  child,  as  if  with  a  sure  calcula- 
tion that  he  would  snap  at  the  bait,  and  place 
himself  under  her  care  as  the  child,  no  matter 
whether  a  good  or  bad  one.  But  now  he  had 
already  formed  a  fancy  for  the  demon  as  being 
superior  and  more  interesting,  therefore  he  held 
to  the  more  grateful  task.  Surely  he  knew  from 
experience  that  the  easiest  way  to  insinuate  one- 
self into  a  woman's  favor  was  to  let  her  play  the 
mother  with  all  the  freedom  changed  to  intimacy, 
but  it  was  a  worn-out  play  and  could  so  easily 
lead  to  an  inextirpable  hectoring  on  her  part. 
Better  then  to  give  her  the  more  grateful  part  of 
a  redeemer,  where  nothing  that  was  absolutely 
superior  entered,  only  the  mother  of  God's  inter- 
vening purpose,  where  she  was  mediator  between 
two  equally  strong  powers. 

But  the  transition  was  not  easily  found,  and  in 
a  moment  of  loathing  at  the  whole  play,  which 
was  still  necessary  if  he  would  win  her,  and  that 
he  would,  he  pretended  to  go  down  and  see  if  the 
boat  was  safely  moored,  as  a  breeze  was  begin- 
ning to  blow. 

Upon  reaching  the  beach  he  drew  a  long  breath 
as  though  he  had  been  exerting  himself  beyond 
his  strength.     He  unbuttoned  his  vest  as  though 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  145 

he  had  been  wearing  a  coat  of  Iron,  and  cooling 
his  head  he  threw  a  longing  glance  out  over  the 
free  water.  Now  he  would  have  given  much  to 
have  been  alone,  to  shake  off  the  chaff  which  had 
fallen  upon  his  soul  during  his  contact  with  a  lower 
spirit.  In  this  moment  he  hated  her,  would  be 
free  from  her,  own  himself  again,  but  it  was  too 
late!  Cobwebs  had  fastened  to  his  face,  soft  as 
silk,  slimy,  invisible  and  impossible  to  remove. 
At  the  same  time  —  when  he  turned  back  and  saw 
her  as  she  sat  peeling  a  chestnut  with  her  long 
lingers  and  sharp  teeth  —  he  was  reminded  of  a 
mandrill  he  had  seen  In  a  menagerie,  and  was 
seized  with  an  Infinite  compassion,  and  a  wave  of 
sadness,  such  as  the  more  fortunate  feels  when  he 
looks  upon  the  lowly.  He  Immediately  thought 
of  her  delight  at  seeing  him  as  a  Hottentot,  and 
became  vexed  again,  but  calming  himself  with  the 
self-possession  of  a  man  of  the  world  he  ap- 
proached her,  and  to  speak  the  first  cloaked  word 
he  reminded  her  that  It  was  time  to  go,  as  the  wind 
had  risen.  However  she  had  observed  the  tired 
and  absent-minded  look  upon  his  face  and  with  a 
sharpness,  which  completely  calmed  his  feeling 
for  an  Instant,  she  responded: 

"  You  are  tired  of  my  company!     Let  us  go." 
When  he  did  not  answer  with  a  courtesy,  she  re- 
sumed   with    feeling,    which    it    was    difficult    to 
judge  whether  real  or  pretended. 


146  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

"  Excuse  me,  I  am  naughty!  I  have  grown  so, 
and  I  am  ungrateful !     Never  mind  it !  " 

She  wiped  her  eyes  and  began  with  a  house- 
wife's trained  care  to  put  the  dishes  together. 

And  now,  when  she  bowed  down,  leaning  over 
the  remainder  of  the  unwashed  dishes  with  the 
tablecloth  tied  round  her  waist  for  an  apron  and 
started  to  carry  the  service  to  the  beach  to  wash 
it,  he  hastened  to  relieve  her  of  the  load,  urged 
by  an  irresistible  desire  not  to  see  her  in  a  servant's 
place,  and  feeling  the  sting  of  being  served  by 
one  whom  he  would  raise  far  above  himself  at 
the  same  time  she  was  to  look  up  to  him  as  one 
that  had  granted  her  the  power  over  him. 

At  this  pretended  combat  that  arose  over  whicH 
one  should  serve  the  other,  the  girl  dropped  the 
dishes.  She  gave  a  cry,  but  when  she  looked  at 
the  pieces,  her  face  cleared  up. 

"Fortunately  they  v/ere  all  old!  My  God,  I 
was  so  frightened!  " 

He  suppressed  his  paltry  thoughts  of  the  loss 
by  at  once  placing  himself  on  the  side  of  her  who 
had  had  the  misfortune,  and  glad  to  have  a  noisy 
ending  to  the  various  feelings  that  rent  him,  he 
threw  the  shivers  of  porcelain  like  skipping  stones 
out  over  the  bay  and  rounded  off  the  pointed  sit- 
uation with  a  jocose, 

"  Now  we  do  not  need  to  wash  dishes,  Miss 
Mary!" 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  147 

Whereupon  he  reached  her  his  hand  and  helped 
her  into  the  boat,  which  was  already  pulling  at  the 
painter  under  the  increasing  dash  of  the  waves. 


CHAPTER  SEVENTH 

A  BRIGHT,  sunny  summer  morning  the  commis- 
sioner is  sitting  with  his  pupil  up  in  the  wooden 
pavilion,  which  he  has  had  set  up  on  the  highest 
point  of  the  skerry  close  to  the  newly  laid  founda- 
tion of  the  mission  house.  Down  in  the  harbor 
lies  a  schooner,  from  which  the  frame  for  the  new 
building  is  being  unloaded  and  carried  up  to  its 
place  to  be  joined  together  by  the  foreman  and 
his  laborers.  Therefore  it  has  been  unusually 
lively  on  the  skerry  for  some  time  and  small 
skirmishes  have  already  arisen  between  the  fisher- 
men and  the  city  workmen,  in  which  the  latter 
have  treated  the  former  with  insolence,  which  has 
given  rise  to  a  series  of  feasts  of  atonement  fol- 
lowed by  drunkenness  and  new  frays,  attacks  of 
immorality  and  appropriation  of  other's  property. 
Therefore  the  commissioner  and  the  elderly  lady 
have  a  momentary  regret  at  having  undertaken 
the  civilization  of  these  people,  when  the  first 
steps  already  showed  such  a  sad  result;  so  much 
more  so  as  the  nightly  noises,  singing,  crying  and 
complaining  disturbed  all  work  and  all  rest  for 
them,  who  had  come  out  here  solely  for  the  pur- 

Z48 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  149 

pose  of  seeking  quiet.  The  commissioner,  who 
had  lost  all  reputation  by  once  yielding  a  little  of 
his  authority,  could  not  restore  the  peace,  but  Miss 
Mary  on  the  other  hand  succeeded  better  and  un- 
derstood how  by  a  prompt  appearance,  and  a  good 
word  now  and  then,  to  suppress  the  storm.  This 
she  would  not  impute  to  her  beauty  and  agreeable 
manner;  she  had  credited  herself  with  a  higher 
degree  of  strength  and  understanding  than  she 
possessed,  and  thus  Imbued  herself  in  the  belief 
of  having  an  unusual  faculty  of  mind,  so  that  even 
now,  when  she  sat  as  a  pupil  with  her  teacher,  she 
received  his  Instruction  as  though  she  were  al- 
ready acquainted  with  them,  and  answered  with 
remarks  more  pointed  than  sagacious,  seeming  to 
correct  and  explain  rather  than  to  learn. 

The  mother,  who  was  sitting  beside  her  em- 
broidering an  altar  cloth  for  the  new  mission 
house,  seemed  occasionally  amazed  at  her  daugh- 
ter's penetrating  insight  and  great  knowledge,  as 
she  with  a  simple  question  nonplussed  her  teacher. 

"  See  here.  Miss  Mary,"  lectured  the  commis- 
sioner, always  deceiving  himself  with  the  hope  of 
being  able  to  educate  her;  "  the  untrained  eye  has 
a  propensity  to  see  everything  simple;  the  un- 
trained ear  to  hear  everything  simple.  You  see 
here  around  you  only  gray  granite,  and  the  painter 
and  the  poet  see  the  same.  Therefore  they  paint 
and  depict  everything  so  monotonously;  therefore 


ISO  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

they  find  the  skerries  so  monotonous.  And  yet, 
look  at  this  geological  map  of  the  surroundings 
and  then  throw  a  glance  out  over  the  landscape. 
We  are  sitting  on  the  red  gneiss  region.  Look  at 
this  stone  you  call  granite,  how  rich  is  the  variety ; 
It  Is  the  baking  together  of  the  black  mica,  the 
white  quartz  and  the  pinkish  feldspar." 

He  had  taken  a  sample  from  the  pile  which  the 
foundation  layers  had  blasted  from  the  skerry  and 
laid  in  a  heap  for  the  building's  foundation. 

"  And  look,  here  is  another.  It  is  called  eurite ! 
See  what  fine  shades  of  color,  from  salmon  red 
towards  flint  blue.  And  here  is  white  marble  of 
primeval  limestone." 

"Is  there  marble  here?"  asked  the  girl,  her 
Imagination  stirred  at  the  mention  of  this  valuable 
stone. 

"Yes,  there  exists  marble  here,  although  it  looks 
gray  on  the  surface  without  being  gray.  For,  if 
you  observe  it  closer  you  will  find  what  an  Infinite 
variety  of  color  there  Is  in  the  lichens.  What  a 
scale  of  the  finest  colors  from  the  ramaline  lichen 
India-ink  black  to  the  crottle's  ash-gray,  the 
ground  liverwort's  leather-brown,  the  parmelia 
lichen  seal-green,  the  tree  lungwort's  spotted  cop- 
per-green and  the  wall  moss  egg-yellow.  Look 
closer  out  over  the  skerries  as  they  are  now  lit  by 
the  sun,  you  will  see  that  the  rocks  have  different 
colors,  and  that  the  people  who  are  used  to  seeing 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  151, 

them,  even  give  them  names  after  the  scale  of  col- 
ors, which  they  are  acquainted  with  without  know- 
ing it.  Do  you  see  that  the  Black  Rock  is  darker 
than  the  others,  because  it  consists  of  the  dark 
hornblende;  that  the  Red  Rock  is  red,  because  it 
is  composed  of  red  gneiss,  and  the  white  skerries 
of  clean  washed  eurite?  Is  it  not  more  to  know 
why,  than  to  know  that  a  thing  is  so;  and  still  less 
to  see  nothing  but  an  even  gray,  as  the  painter, 
who  paints  all  the  skerries  with  a  mixing  of  black 
and  white?  Hear  now  the  roaring  of  the  waves, 
as  the  poets  summarily  call  this  symphony  of 
sound.  Close  your  eyes  for  a  moment  and  you 
will  hear  better  while  I  analyze  this  harmony  in 
simple  notes.  You  at  first  hear  a  buzzing  which 
resembles  the  noise  heard  in  a  machine  shop  or  a 
big  city.  It  is  the  masses  of  water  dashing 
against  each  other;  next  you  hear  a  hissing;  it  is 
the  lighter,  smaller  water  particles  which  are 
lashed  to  foam.  And  now  a  grating  as  of  a  knife 
against  a  grindstone;  it  is  the  wave  tearing  against 
the  sand.  And  now  a  rattling  like  the  dumping 
of  a  load  of  gravel;  it  is  the  sea  heaving  up  small 
stones.  Then  a  muffled  thud  as  when  you  clap 
the  hollow  of  your  hand  to  the  ear,  it  is  the  wave 
which  presses  the  air  before  it  into  a  cavern; 
and  lastly  this  murmuring  as  from  distant  thun- 
der, it  is  big  bowlders,  rolling  on  the  stony  bot- 
tom." 


152  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

"  Yes,  but  this  is  to  spoil  nature  for  us  I  "  said 
the  girl. 

"It  is  to  make  nature  intimate  with  us!  It 
gives  me  composure  to  know  it,  and  thereby  frees 
me  from  the  poet's  half-hidden  fear  of  the  un- 
known, which  is  nothing  else  than  memories  from 
the  time  of  savage  fiction,  when  explanations  were 
sought  but  could  not  be  found  quickly;  and  in 
the  emergency  the  fable  of  the  mermaids  and  the 
giants  was  caught  at.  But  now  we  pass  on  to  the 
fishing,  which  shall  be  retrieved,  leaving  the  sal- 
mon for  some  other  time,  and  try  new  methods 
for  stromling  fishing.  In  two  months  the  great 
fishing  begins,  and  if  I  have  not  calculated  wrongly 
it  is  going  to  be  a  failure  in  the  autumn." 

"  How  can  you  foretell  that  from  your  sofa?  '* 
asked  the  girl  more  cuttingly  than  inquisitive. 

"  I  foretell  it  by  the  facts  that  I  have  seen  — 
from  my  sofa  —  how  the  drifting  ice  in  the  spring 
scraped  the  shoals  clear  of  kelp  and  other  algas, 
in  which  the  stromling  go  to  spawn.  I  foretell  it 
by  the  scientific  fact  that  the  small  crustaceans  — 
no  matter  what  they  are  called  —  on  which  the 
stromling  feed,  have  stayed  away  from  the  banks 
since  the  seaweed  was  scraped  away.  What  shall 
we  do  then?  We  shall  try  to  fish  in  the  deep  wa- 
ter I  If  the  fish  don't  come  to  me  then  I  must  go 
to  the  fish.  And  therefore  we  shall  try  with  nets 
drifting  after  a  floating  boat.     It  is  simple  I  " 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  153 

"  It  is  grand!  "  said  Miss  Mary. 

"  It  is  old,"  protested  the  commissioner,  *'  and 
it  Isn't  my  discovery  I  But  now  we  shall  as  pru- 
dent beings  think  of  a  last  resort,  for  even  if  we 
get  stromling  and  don't  get  a  price  for  it  on  ac- 
count of  herring  being  caught  again  on  the  west 
coast,  we  must  have  something  else  in  readiness." 

"  It  is  the  salmon?" 

"  It  is  the  salmon,  which  must  be  found  here, 
but  I  haven't  seen  it." 

"  You  have  told  me  this  much  before,  but  now 
I  should  like  to  know  how  you  can  know  it." 

"  I  shall  reduce  the  fraction  and  in  a  few  words 
tell  the  reason  of  my  stay  here.  The  salmon  wan- 
der as  do  the  other  migrating  birds." 

"  The  salmon  a  bird?  " 

"  Certainly,  a  perfect  migratory  bird.  It  Is  to 
be  found  near  the  rivers  of  Norrland,  and  has 
been  caught  twice  in  nets  round  the  Islands  of  the 
north  passage.  It  has  been  taken  near  Gotland 
and  in  the  whole  southward  passage;  therefore  it 
must  pass  by  here.  Now  it  is  your  task  to  trace 
it  out  with  floating  trails.  Have  you  the  desire 
to  do  it,  in  the  capacity  of  my  assistant,  to  obtain 
my  salary?  " 

The  last  word  came  suddenly,  but  with  calcula- 
tion, and  did  not  fail  In  its  intent. 

"  I  shall  make  money,  mamma,"  cried  Miss 
Mary  In  a  playful  tone.  Intended  to  hide  the  joy 


154  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

she  really  felt.  "  But,"  added  she,  "  what  will 
you  do  then?  " 

"  I  shall  lie  on  my  sofa,  and  spoil  nature  for 
you." 

"What  are  you  going  to  do?"  asked  the 
mother,  who  believed  she  had  not  heard  aright. 

"  I  shall  make  an  Italian  landscape  for  Miss 
Mary,"  answered  the  commissioner,  "  and  now  I 
will  leave  you,  my  ladies,  and  make  the  sketch." 

Therewith  he  arose  and  making  a  polite  bow 
walked  down  to  the  beach. 

"  He  is  an  odd  being,"  said  the  mother,  when 
the  commissioner  was  out  of  hearing. 

"  An  unusual  being  at  the  least,"  answered  the 
girl;  "but  I  don't  believe  he  is  perfectly  sane. 
He  seems  to  have  principles,  and  on  the  whole  is 
a  kind  man.     What  have  you  to  say  about  him.?  " 

"  Hand  me  my  yarn,  child,"  said  the  mother. 

"  No,  but  say  something  .  .  .  tell  me  whether 
you  like  him  or  not,"  continued  the  girl. 

The  mother  only  answered  with  a  half  sad  and 
half  resigned  glance,  which  expressed  indifference. 

Meanwhile  the  commissioner  had  gone  down  to 
the  harbor  and  taken  his  boat  to  row  out  among 
the  skerries.  The  summer  heat  had  lasted  out 
here  a  month,  so  that  the  air  was  hot;  but  drifting 
ice  still  coming  from  the  north,  where  an  unusually 
severe  winter  on  the  coast  had  caused  bottom 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  155 

freezing,  was  now  drifting  southward,  cooling  the 
water,  so  that  the  lower  air  strata  had  greater 
density  than  the  upper  ones.  The  consequent  re- 
fraction disfigured  the  aspect  of  the  skerries  and 
had  caused  the  most  magnificent  mirages  during 
the  past  few  days.  This  scenery  had  given  rise 
to  long  continued  disputes  between  the  commis- 
sioner and  the  ladles  in  which  the  fishing  popula- 
tion had  been  summoned  as  judges,  being  the  most 
competent  because  they  had  seen  these  phenomena 
of  nature  from  childhood.  And  when  on  a  morn- 
ing the  light  red  gneiss  skerries  through  refraction 
stretched  upwards  and  by  the  varying  density  in 
the  strata  of  air  seemed  stratified  as  the  cliffs 
of  Normandy,  Miss  Mary  argued  that  it  really 
was  those  limestone  cliffs,  which  were  reflected 
as  far  up  as  the  Baltic  Sea,  through  a  law  of  na- 
ture still  unsolved  by  science.  At  the  same  time 
the  white  swell  of  the  breakers  in  the  strand  stones 
was  magnified  and  multiplied  through  refraction 
so  that  It  really  looked  as  though  a  flotilla  of 
Normandy  fishing  boats  were  beating  the  wind 
under  the  cliffs.  The  commissioner,  who  had 
tried  in  vain  to  give  the  only  correct  explanation, 
in  order  to  take  away  the  supernatural,  the  more 
so  as  the  people  saw  in  the  phenomena  predic- 
tions, of  course,  of  coming  misfortunes;  belief  in 
ill  luck,  which  acted  as  a  damper  on  their  enter- 
prise, now  found  himself  obliged  to  appear  first 


156  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

as  a  wizard  to  win  the  ear  of  the  populace,  with 
the  intention,  however,  to  subsequently  remove  the 
mystery  by  telling  them  how  he  made  his  magic. 

Therefore  he  asked  the  believers,  whether  they 
would  also  believe  themselves  to  see  a  mirage  of 
Italy,  If  they  should  see  an  Italian  landscape,  and 
when  they  answered,  "  Yes,"  he  decided  to  com- 
bine the  useful  with  the  pleasant  and  by  a  few 
small  changes  fulfil  his  promise  to  form  an  exotic 
landscape  for  Miss  Mary's  birthday,  so  that  by 
the  next  mirage  It  would  loom  up  against  the 
horizon  on  a  grand  scale  when  seen  through  the 
colossal  magnifying  glass,  that  the  different  den- 
sity of  the  air  strata  afforded. 

Sitting  In  his  boat,  he  aimed  towards  the  Sword- 
Islet  with  his  diopter,  the  lenses  of  which  he  had 
considerably  Increased  In  power.  Now  the  first 
question  was  how  to  get  the  most  characteristic 
features  of  the  formation,  viz.,  the  stratified  rocks, 
to  come  forth,  and  this  nature  had  partly  done. 
After  this  he  needed  a  stone  pine,  a  cypress,  a 
marble  palace  and  a  terrace  with  oranges  on 
espaliers. 

After  scanning  and  outlining  the  skerry,  he  had 
the  scheme  clear  and  soon  landed  with  his  boat  In 
which  was  stowed  a  crow  bar,  a  ship  scraper,  a 
roll  of  zinc  wire  and  a  bucket  of  yellow  ocher  with 
a  big  tar  brush,  besides  an  ax,  a  saw,  nails  and  a 
stock  of  dynamite  cartridges. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  157 

When  he  had  landed  and  packed  up  his  belong- 
ings, he  felt  himself  a  Robinson  Crusoe,  who  had 
taken  up  a  battle  with  nature,  but  much  sharper 
and  surer  of  victory  as  he  had  brought  along  the 
means  of  culture.  After  he  had  placed  the  plane 
table  on  a  tripod  and  upon  this  the  alidade,  he 
started  to  work. 

The  mountain  ridge,  whose  tilted  folds  happily 
imitated  the  southern  sedimentary  strata,  needed 
only  to  be  scraped  so  as  to  remove  the  lichens, 
where  there  were  any,  leaving  some  horizontal 
stripes  darker  than  the  folds.  It  was  not  heavy 
work;  the  ship  scraper  glided  over  the  smooth  sur- 
face as  a  retouching  brush  on  the  scene  painter's 
big  canvas. 

Sometimes  he  felt  with  disgust  that  he  was 
throwing  time  and  power  away  on  childish  things, 
but  the  bodily  exertion  sent  the  blood  to  his  head, 
so  that  he  saw  small  things  bigger  than  they  were; 
felt  something  of  a  Titan,  who  stormed  the  uni- 
verse, corrected  our  Maker's  mistakes,  and  wrig- 
gled the  earth's  axis  so  that  the  south  came  a  little 
northward. 

After  he  had  striped  the  rocky  wall,  for  a  few 
meters,  which  was  all  that  was  needed  as  it  was 
to  be  multiplied  by  the  air  strata,  he  went  to 
manufacture  the  stone  pine.  On  the  hillock's 
crest  stood  a  group  of  low  arborescent  pines, 
which  together  only  miraged  as  the  border  of  a 


158  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

forest.  The  thing  was  to  cut  down  half  a  dozen 
trees  to  Isolate  the  best  one  which  would  be  sil- 
houetted against  the  sky. 

To  saw  down  the  supernumerary  trees  was  the 
work  of  half  an  hour.  The  one  that  was  left  was 
slender  with  all  its  vegetative  energy  gathered  at 
the  top,  because  the  others  standing  so  close  had 
hindered  the  formation  of  branches  on  the  trunk. 
But  now  he  must  thin  the  crown  with  an  ax  so  that 
the  characteristic  umbrella  frame  with  its  ribs 
came  out.  It  was  easily  done,  but  when  he  after- 
wards looked  at  his  creation  with  the  diopter  he 
still  saw  that  the  style  was  not  perfect  and  that 
the  top  branches  must  be  stretched  upwards  with 
zinc  wire  and  the  side  branches  somewhat  down- 
wards and  outv/ards.  When  the  stone  pine  was 
completed,  he  took  a  glass  of  wine  and  selected 
the  material  for  the  cypresses.  This  soon  pre- 
sented itself  in  the  form  of  a  pair  of  pointed  juni- 
pers, which  he  only  needed  to  select  so  that  they 
rose  against  the  sky,  and  trim  them  with  an  ax  and 
the  knife.  But  as  they  were  somewhat  too  light, 
he  took  a  pail  of  water  and  stirred  some  ivory- 
black  in  it  and  sprinkled  them  with  the  wash  until 
they  had  a  perfect  churchyard  green. 

When  he  contemplated  his  work,  he  became 
dejected,  and  recollected  a  dark  story  of  the  girl 
who  stepped  on  the  loaf  of  bread;  and  when  the 
white  mews  gave  forth  dreadful  cries  above  his 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  159 

head,  he  thought  of  the  two  black  ravens  which 
came  from  heaven  to  take  her  soul  down  to  hell. 

After  he  had  sat  a  moment  and  the  blood  had 
returned  to  his  brain,  he  smiled  at  his  work  and 
at  his  childish  fear.  If  nature  herself  had  not 
gone  exactly  so  hastily  to  work  with  the  origin  of 
species  it  was  not  lack  of  good  will,  only  lack  of 
ability. 

Now  to  make  a  marble  palace;  and  as  that  had 
been  his  starting  point  and  he  had  planned  it  all 
at  home  on  his  sofa,  this  work  was  not  more  dif- 
ficult than  the  other. 

The  limestone  ledge  stood  perfectly  vertical, 
ready  for  a  facade;  true  there  were  only  a  few 
square  meters  of  it  but  no  more  was  needed,  and 
it  was  only  to  loosen  the  eurite  slabs,  which  from 
weathering  had  cracked  from  the  limestone.  The 
crowbar  proved  sufficient  at  first,  but  at  the  base 
he  found  it  necessary  to  use  a  dynamite  cartridge 
in  the  crack. 

At  the  report  of  the  cartridge  and  the  raining 
down  of  shivers  he  felt  something  of  the  poet's 
longing  to  dump  all  at  once  the  ammunition  of  the 
standing  armies  Into  a  volcano  and  relieve  human- 
ity of  the  pain  of  existence  and  the  trouble  of  de- 
velopment. 

Now  the  marble  slab  was  cleared  and  the  crys- 
tals of  the  limestone  sparkled  like  loaf  sugar  In 
the  sunbeams.     With  his  paint  buckets  he  marked 


i6o  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

out  a  rustic  base  and  outlined  two  small  quadran- 
gular windows.  On  the  rocky  ledge  above  he 
drove  two  poles  and  laid  a  third  one  across,  tying 
them  so  that  the  whole  formed  a  pergola.  After- 
wards he  needed  only  to  lift  up  the  bearberry 
vines,  which  were  a  couple  of  yards  long,  and 
twine  them  round  the  poles;  thus  the  grapevine 
was  in  place,  and  hanging  down  in  festoons. 

At  last  he  retouched  the  soil  with  a  gallon  of 
muriatic  acid  diluted  with  as  much  water,  whereby 
a  brilliant  variegation  of  colors  was  produced  on 
the  grassy  carpet,  to  represent  patches  of  Bellis  or 
Galanthus  which  flowers  he  had  found  character- 
istic of  the  Roman  Campagna  at  the  coming  of  the 
*'  second  spring  "  in  October  after  the  wine  har- 
vest has  ended. 

And  therewith  his  work  was  completed  I 
But  it  had  taken  him  until  evening.  In  order 
that  the  miracle  should  have  a  proper  effect  there 
remained,  however,  to  announce  its  appearance  In 
advance  and  best  if  he  could  predetermine  the  day. 
He  knew  that  there  had  been  great  heat  In  the 
south  of  Europe,  and  therefore  It  would  not  be 
long  before  a  north  wind  would  come.  It  had 
been  from  the  east  for  some  time  now,  while  the 
barometric  pressure  In  the  North  Sea  had  been 
low.  According  to  reports,  drifting  Ice  lay  off 
Arholma,  and  as  soon  as  the  wind  would  veer  a 
few  points  to  northward  the  Ice  drift  must  follow 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  i6i 

the  current  which  passes  to  the  west  of  Aland, 
where  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  empties  Into  the  Baltic 
Sea.  If  he  could  only  get  a  north  wind  In  the 
evening  of  some  day  then  he  was  sure  it  would 
last  a  couple  of  days,  and  as  it  is  always  accom- 
panied by  clear  air  he  would  be  able  to  foretell 
the  appearance  of  the  phenomenon  at  least  one 
day  In  advance,  and  if  he  got  that  far  it  would 
be  an  easy  matter  to  tell  the  hour,  for  the  mirage 
only  appeared  a  few  hours  after  sunrise,  usually 
between  ten  and  twelve  o'clock. 

As  he  entered  his  chamber,  he  locked  the  door 
to  devote  himself  to  his  work,  his  great  work, 
which  he  had  been  planning  for  the  last  ten  years 
and  expected  to  complete  when  he  was  fifty;  this 
was  the  goal,  which  had  inspired  his  life  and  which 
he  carried  as  his  secret.  He  enjoyed  the  thought 
of  owning  himself  for  a  few  hours,  for  during  the 
weeks  which  had  passed  since  the  arrival  of  the 
two  ladles,  he  had  been  occupied  every  evening 
with  keeping  them  company,  and  that,  which 
should  have  been  a  rest  and  a  pleasure,  had  be- 
come a  constraint,  a  labor.  He  loved  the  young 
girl  and  would  live  with  her  in  wedlock.  In  com- 
plete unification,  when  leisure  moments  would 
afford  unpremeditated  confidences  and  rest;  but 
this  state  of  semi-familiarity  where  he  at  fixed 
hours  must  appear  whether  he  was  disposed  to 
converse  or  not,  pained  him  as  a  duty.     She  had 


1 62  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

caught  hold  of  him  and  never  tired  of  receiving 
as  he  possessed  the  ability  to  be  always  new  and 
entertaining;  but  he  who  never  received  anything, 
could  in  time  find  the  need  of  renewing  himself. 
But  when  he  then  stayed  away,  she  became  uneasy, 
nervous  and  tortured  him  with  questions  whether 
she  was  too  importunate,  to  which  he  as  a  well- 
bred  man  could  not  answer  in  the  affirmative. 

Now  he  opened  his  manuscript  case,  where  the 
cartons  lay  arranged  with  notes,  small  slips  of 
paper  with  improvised  thoughts  on  observations, 
stuck  on  half  sheets  as  in  a  herbarium,  and  which 
it  amused  him  to  arrange  and  rearrange  after  new 
classifications  in  order  to  find  out  whether  the 
phenomena  could  be  arranged  in  as  many  ways  as 
the  brain  willed,  or  they  really  could  be  arranged 
according  to  only  one  classification,  viz.,  as  nature 
had  placed  them,  if  indeed  nature  in  its  operations 
had  followed  any  particular  law  and  order.  This 
occupation  awakened  in  him  the  idea  that  he  was 
the  real  arranger  of  chaos,  who  separated  light 
from  darkness;  and  that  the  chaos  first  ceased  with 
the  evolution  of  the  discriminating  organ  of  self- 
consciousness,  at  a  time  when  light  and  darkness  In 
reality  were  not  yet  separated.  He  intoxicated 
himself  with  this  thought,  felt  how  his  ego  was 
growing,  how  the  brain  cells  germinated,  burst 
their  capsules,  multiplied  and  formed  new  species 
of   concepts,   which   should   in   time   crop   out   in 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  163 

thoughts,  and  fall  into  the  brain  substance  of 
others  as  yeast  plants  and  cause  millions  after  his 
death,  if  not  before,  to  serve  as  hot  beds  for  his 
seeds  of  thought  .  .  . 

There  was  a  knock  at  the  door,  and  with  an 
excited  voice,  as  though  he  had  been  disturbed  in 
a  secret  meeting,  he  asked  who  it  was. 

It  was  a  greeting  from  the  ladies  and  an  inquiry 
if  the  commissioner  would  come  down. 

This  he  answered  by  returning  his  regards,  but 
he  had  no  time  this  evening  because  he  must  work, 
unless  some  urgent  circumstances  required  his  pres- 
ence. 

There  was  silence  for  a  moment.  As  he 
thought  he  surely  knew  what  would  follow  he  left 
his  interrupted  work  and  placed  his  manuscript 
in  order;  he  had  just  completed  this  when  he  heard 
the  mother's  step  on  the  staircase.  Instead  of 
waiting  for  her  to  knock  he  opened  the  door  and 
greeted  her  with  the  question,  "  Miss  Mary  is 
sick?" 

The  mother  started,  but  recovered  herself  at 
once  and  asked  the  doctor  to  come  down  and  see 
her  as  It  was  impossible  to  get  a  physician. 

The  commissioner  was  not  a  physician  but  he 
had  acquired  the  elements  of  pathology  and  thera- 
peutics; had  observed  himself  and  all  the  sick  that 
had  come  within  his  circle;  had  philosophized  over 
the  nature  of  diseases  and  their  remedies,   and 


1 64  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

finally,  made  up  a  therapy,  that  he  applied  to  him- 
self. Therefore  he  promised  to  come  In  about 
half  an  hour  and  bring  the  medicine  with  him  as 
he  heard  the  girl  lay  In  convulsions. 

It  certainly  was  not  difficult  for  him  to  guess 
the  nature  of  her  sickness.  As  the  first  messen- 
ger had  said  nothing  about  Illness,  It  must  have 
occurred  between  the  two  messages  and  had  been 
caused  by  his  refusal  to  go.  It  was  a  psychical 
indisposition,  which  he  so  well  recognized  and 
which  passed  under  the  yet  undefined  name  of  hys- 
teria. A  little  pressure  on  the  will,  a  thwarted 
wish,  a  cross  plan,  and  at  once  followed  a  general 
depression  under  which  the  soul  tried  to  place 
the  pains  within  the  body  without  being  able  to 
localize  them.  He  had  so  often  seen  In  the 
pharmacodynamics  beside  the  names  of  remedies 
and  their  action  small  cautious  remarks  as  "  acts 
In  a  yet  unexplained  way,"  or  "  action  not  yet  fully 
known,"  and  he  believed  that  he  had  found  by  ob- 
servation and  speculation,  that  just  because  of  the 
unity  of  mind  and  matter  the  remedy  acted  both 
chemlco-dynamically  and  psychically  at  the  same 
time.  Recent  medical  ideas  had  left  out  the  med- 
icine or  the  material  basis  and  assumed  In  hypno- 
tism a  purely  psychical,  or  in  diet  and  physical 
exercise  a  vulgar  and  often  detrimental  mechan- 
ical method.  These  exaggerations  he  regarded  as 
necessary  and  beneficial  transition  forms,  although 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  165 

their  trial  had  demanded  its  victims  as,  for  in- 
stance, when  one  with  cold  water  excites  a  nervous 
person  instead  of  soothing  them  with  warm  baths, 
or  tired  out  the  weak  with  violent  exercises  in  the 
raw  air. 

He  believed  he  had  found  that  the  old  reme- 
dies could  still  be  of  service  as  a  kind  of  instruc- 
tion material,  to  use  the  popular  expression,  in 
order  to  awaken  and  change  impressions,  and  just 
as  the  group  of  astringents  really  cause  a  con- 
tracting of  the  stomach,  just  so  do  they  cause  a 
concentrating  of  the  soul's  scattered  powers, 
which  the  dissipated  drinker  knows  from  experi- 
ence when  he  in  the  morning  winds  up  his  run 
down  movement  with  an  "  Angostura." 

This  woman  felt  herself  bodily  indisposed  with- 
out directly  being  so.  Therefore  he  now  com- 
posed a  series  of  remedies,  of  which  the  first 
would  cause  a  real  physical  ailment  whereby  the 
patient  should  be  urged  to  leave  the  sickly  condi- 
tion of  the  soul  and  localize  it  definitely  in  the 
body.  To  this  purpose  he  took  from  his  family 
medicine  case  the  most  nauseating  of  all  drugs, 
asafoetida,  which  could  best  develop  a  condition 
of  general  illness,  and  in  such  great  doses  that 
actual  convulsions  would  result;  that  means,  the 
whole  physique  with  the  senses  of  smell  and  taste 
should  rise  In  revolt  against  this  strange  substance 
in  the  body,  and  all  the  functions  of  the  soul  should 


i66  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

direct  their  attention  to  Its  removal.  Thereby 
the  imaginary  pains  would  be  forgotten,  and  it 
would  only  remain  then  to  cause  in  succession 
transitions  from  the  one  nauseating  sensation  down 
through  less  unpleasant  ones,  until  finally  the  re- 
lease from  the  last  stage,  by  means  of  an  upward 
grade  of  cooling,  covering,  softening,  mitigating 
remedies,  should  awaken  a  complete  sensation  of 
vivacity  as  after  having  passed  through  troubles 
and  dangers,  which  are  delightful  to  recollect. 

After  having  dressed  himself  In  a  white  sack 
coat  of  cashmere  and  tied  on  a  cream  colored  neck- 
tie with  pale  amethyst  stripes,  he  for  the  first  time 
since  the  arrival  of  the  ladies  put  on  his  bracelet. 
Why  all  this  he  could  not  explain,  but  he  did  It 
under  the  influence  of  an  impression,  brought  from 
the  sick  bed  he  v/as  to  visit,  and  which  he  produced 
in  himself.  And  when  he  looked  In  the  mirror 
without  observing  his  face,  he  noticed  that  his  ex- 
terior gave  a  mild  sympathetic  Im.presslon,  but  also 
with  a  touch  of  the  unusual  and  that  it  would 
attract  attention,  without  exciting  a  nervous 
person. 

After  this  he  collected  his  requisites  like  a  ma- 
gician who  is  going  to  perform,  and  went  to  the 
sick  bed. 

When  he  was  shown  into  the  chamber,  he  saw 
the  girl  lying  on  the  sofa,  with  disheveled  hair 
and   dressed   in   a   Persian   morning-gown.     Her 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  167 

eyes  were  unnaturally  big  and  stared  contemptu- 
ously at  the  intruder. 

The  commissioner  felt  for  a  moment  embar- 
rassed, but  only  for  a  moment,  and  then  he  stepped 
forwards  and  grasped  her  hand. 

"  How  is  it  with  you,  Miss  Mary?  "  asked  he 
sympathetically. 

She  looked  at  him  piercingly,  as  though  she 
would  penetrate  him,  but  did  not  answer. 

He  took  out  his  watch  and,  counting  her  pulse, 
said: 

"  You  have  fever." 

Here  he  lied,  but  he  must  gain  her  confidence, 
that  was  part  of  the  cure. 

The  expression  on  the  girl's  face  changed  im- 
mediately. 

"  If  I  have  fever!  Oh,  I  believe  I  shall  burn 
up!" 

She  was  allowed  to  complain,  and  the  hostile 
mood  against  the  visitor  had  passed  so  that  con- 
tact closing  the  current  could  occur, 

"  Do  you  promise  to  obey  my  orders?  If  so,  I 
will  cure  you,"  the  commissioner  began,  meantime 
laying  his  hand  on  her  forehead. 

At  the  word  obey  he  felt  how  the  patient 
twitched  as  though  she  would  not  obey  at  all,  but 
at  the  same  moment  his  bracelet  slipped  below 
the  cuff  and  the  resistance  of  the  imaginary  sick 
ceased. 


i68  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

"  Do  with  me  as  you  please,"  answered  she 
submissively;  meanwhile  her  eyes  were  fastened  on 
the  golden  serpent  which  fascinated  her  and 
aroused  her  fears  of  something  unknown. 

"  I  am  no  physician  by  profession,  as  you  know, 
but  I  have  studied  the  art,  and  know  all  that  is 
necessary  for  this  occasion.  Here  I  have  a  drug 
which  is  very  diagreeable  to  take,  but  is  infallible 
in  its  action.  It  is  no  secret  and  I  shall  tell  you 
what  I  am  giving  you.  This  is  a  resinous  gum 
which  is  prepared  from  the  root  of  a  perennial 
herb  which  grows  in  stony  Arabia." 

At  the  Vv^ord  Arabia  the  girl  listened,  for  it 
probably  aroused  some  thoughts  of  incense,  which 
could  not  hide  Lady  Macbeth's  foul  crimes. 

Therefore  she  took  the  spoon  and  smelt  of  its 
contents;  but  at  the  same  moment  she  threw  her 
head  backwards  and  cried: 

"  I  cannot  take  it !  " 

He  placed  his  arm  round  her  neck,  firmly  and 
gently,  and  reached  the  spoon  to  her  once  more 
and  coaxingly  said: 

"  Show  now  that  you  are  a  good  child !  " 

Thereupon  he  poured  the  drug  into  her  mouth, 
before  she  could  make  resistance. 

She  fell  backwards  upon  the  sofa  pillows  and 
her  body  writhed  under  the  pains  and  nauseating 
effects  which  the  resin  with  its  smell  of  white  onion 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  169 

had  produced,  and  her  face  expressed  a  horror  as 
though  all  things  bad  and  disgusting  in  this  world 
had  piled  upon  her.  With  a  supplicating  voice 
she  beseeched  him  for  a  glass  of  water  to  free  her 
from  her  agony. 

This  he  would  not  give  her;  she  must  lie  down 
and,  whether  she  would  or  not,  submit  to  the  dis- 
agreeable feelings  the  remedy  caused. 

Now  when  he  saw  her  melted  by  disgust,  he 
took  up  his  drug  number  two. 

"  Now,  Miss  Mary,  the  wandering  in  stony 
Arabia's  desert  is  ended  and  you  shall  go  up  on 
the  Alps  and  inhale  the  mountain  air,  concentrated 
in  the  vigorous  gentian's  bitter  root,  yellow  as  sun^ 
light,"  said  the  commissioner  In  an  encouraging, 
manly  voice. 

The  girl  received  the  bitter  drug  unresistingly 
and  shrank  as  though  stabbed  with  a  knife;  but 
directly  after  she  aroused  as  though  her  scattered 
powers  had  rushed  together  and  her  energy  had 
returned.  The  violent  remedy  had  taken  away 
the  previous  obnoxious  taste  but  irritated  the  mu- 
cous membranes  of  the  stomach  by  its  sharpness, 
and  Increased  the  pulse. 

"  Now  we  shall  put  out  the  fire  with  quilts," 
continued  the  commissioner.  "  And  let  us  go  to 
Brittany's  seashore  to  fetch  balsam  In  the  mild 
Carrageen  alga.     Do  you  feel  how  soft  the  mud- 


lyo  ON  THE  SEx^BOARD 

lage  lays  itself  protectingly  over  the  irritated  lining 
of  the  stomach  and  do  you  notice  the  odor  of  the 
sea  salts?  " 

A  quiet  calm  spread  over  the  patient's  heated 
face,  and  as  the  physician  now  considered  her 
strong  enough  to  listen  to  him,  he  began  with 
reminiscences  of  the  coast  of  Brittany,  the  yachting 
on  the  Atlantic,  the  life  with  the  fishermen  in 
Quimper,  and  the  hunting  for  seabirds  at  Sarzeau. 

She  followed  his  narrative,  but  still  seemed 
somewhat  tired,  so  he  broke  off  and  gave  her  a 
symphony,  as  he  called  it,  which  was  composed  of 
the  classical  route,  well  known  as  the  wine  spice 
of  bridal  parties  in  the  Middle  Ages;  the  heavenly 
Angelica,  the  spearmint  with  its  household  odor 
and  a  little  touch  of  Carbenia  henedicta  to  preserve 
vigor,  and  a  grain  of  juniper  oil  to  tell  of  the  for- 
est. 

It  was  as  though  he  rubbed  her  with  impres- 
sions, snatched  her  away  from  sickly  thoughts  by 
letting  her  travel  in  fancy  from  place  to  place; 
make  the  tour  of  the  whole  old  and  new  world,  get 
visions  of  all  kinds  of  landscapes,  all  races  of  peo- 
ple, all  climates.  When  she  seemed  tired  he  gave 
her  a  spoonful  of  lemon  juice  with  a  little  sugar, 
which  cooled  and  eased  her,  so  that  after  a  dread- 
ful half-hour  passed  she  received  this  simple  re- 
freshment as  a  great  enjoyment,  that  made  her 
smile. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  171 

"  Turn  now  towards  the  wall,"  said  the  commis- 
sioner, "  and  pretend  to  sleep  for  five  minutes 
while  I  go  out  and  speak  to  your  mother." 

The  commissioner,  who  felt  his  powers  failing, 
was  obliged  to  go  out  Into  the  fresh  air  to  recover. 
And  now  he  need  only  to  throw  a  glance  out  over 
the  half  lighted  evening  sky,  out  over  the  steel 
blue  sea,  shut  his  eyes  and  try  not  to  think,  to 
feel,  how  the  disordered  brain  regained  its  place 
again  and  continued  its  accelerating  motion  for- 
wards, after  having  been  turned  backwards 
awhile. 

While  he  stood  thus  with  his  arms  on  his  chest, 
half  asleep,  he  heard  a  thought  still  buzzing  in  one 
ear:  a  child  of  thirty-four  years ! 

Thus  he  awoke  and  went  into  the  cottage 
again. 

Miss  Mary  was  sitting  on  the  sofa  with  her  hair 
loosened  and  thrown  gracefully  around  her,  but 
otherwise  looked  perfectly  well  and  cheerful. 

The  commissioner  took  from  his  basket  a  bottle 
of  Syracuse  wine  and  a  package  of  Russian  cigar- 
ettes. 

"  Now  you  shall  pretend  you  are  well,"  said 
he,  "  and  that  we  have  met  after  a  long  journey, 
upon  which  you  shall  drink  a  glass  of  sweet 
Sicilian  wine  and  smoke  a  cigarette,  for  it  is  part 
of  the  cure." 

The  girl  seemed  to  make  an  effort  to  hide  her 


172  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

secret  suffering,  and  drank  the  wine  while  she  kept 
her  eyes  on  the  bracelet. 

The  commissioner  broke  the  silence  with,  "  You 
look  at  my  bracelet?  " 

"  No,  I  did  not,"  denied  the  girl. 

"  I  got  it  from  a  woman  who  of  course  Is  dead, 
as  I  have  not  returned  it." 

"  Have  you  been  in  love  ?  "  asked  the  girl  with 
a  strong  doubt. 

"  Yes,  but  with  open  eyes !  When  one  usually 
considers  it  commendable  to  use  sense,  why  quench 
it  when  one  is  going  to  take  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant steps  in  life?" 

"  So,  one  should  be  calculating  in  love?  " 

"  Strongly,  incredibly  calculating  when  it  is  to 
let  loose  one  of  the  wildest  propensities!  " 

"  Propensities?  " 

"  Propensities  !     Yes  !  " 

"  You  don't  believe  in  love?  " 

"  You  propose  questions  which  have  no  answer  I 
Believe  in  love  in  general?  What  do  you  mean 
by  that?  There  exists  a  mass  of  species  of  love, 
as  much  contrasted  as  black  and  white !  I  cannot 
believe  in  two  of  them  at  the  same  time,  or  all  of 
them  at  once." 

"  And  the  highest  species?  " 

"The  Intellectual;  in  three  stories  but  as  the 
English  house.  Above  is  the  study,  beneath  the 
sleeping  room  and  in  the  basement  the  kitchen." 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  173 

"So  practical  I  But  love,  a  great  love,  is  not 
calculating,  that  I  have  imagined  as  the  highest, 
as  a  storm,  a  lightning  stroke,  a  cataract!  " 

"  As  a  rude,  uncurbed  power  of  nature?  So  it 
appears  to  the  animals  and  the  lower  varieties  of 
human  beings  ..." 

"  Lower?     Are  not  all  human  beings  alike?  " 

"  Oh,  yes !  All  beings  are  alike  as  two  berries, 
youths  and  old  men,  men  and  women,  Hottentots 
and  Frenchmen,  certainly  they  are  alike !  Look 
at  us  two  only!  Perfectly  alike,  the  only  differ- 
ence is  that  I  have  a  beard  1  Pardon,  my  lady, 
now  I  see  that  you  have  recovered  I  will  leave  you. 
A  pleasant  sleep  I  " 

He  had  arisen  and  taken  his  hat,  but  the  next 
moment  the  girl  stood  at  his  side  with  both  his 
hands  clasped  in  hers  and  with  the  same  glances 
with  which  she  for  the  first  time  had  vanquished 
him,  she  begged  him  to  stay! 

Under  these  burning  glances  and  hand  pres- 
sures he  felt  something  as  he  thought  a  young  girl 
might  feel  when  she  stood  under  the  influence  of 
a  seducer's  passionate  attack.  He  became  per- 
turbed and  inwardly  there  arose  a  feeling  of  vio- 
lated bashfulness,  and  injured  manliness.  He 
freed  his  hands,  drew  himself  back  and  said  in  a 
calm  voice,  cutting  in  its  affected  coldness : 

"Consider!" 

"Stay,   or  I  shall  seek  you  in  your  room!" 


174  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

rang  the  excited  voice  of  the  girl,  which  seemed 
to  imply  a  threat  from  which  there  was  no  appeal. 

''  Then  I  shall  lock  my  door !  " 

"Are  you  a  man,  you?"  rang  the  challenge 
with  a  hard  laugh. 

"  Yes,  in  such  a  high  degree  that  I  will  be  both 
the  selecter  and  attacker,  and  I  do  not  like  to  be 
seduced  1  " 

With  this  he  went  out  and  heard  behind  him  a 
noise  as  from  a  human  body  falling  and  striking 
against  furniture. 

After  he  was  out  he  felt  like  turning  back,  for 
through  mental  strain  he  was  in  a  condition  of 
weakness  that  made  him  susceptible  to  impres- 
sions of  the  sufferings  of  others.  But  after  hav- 
ing been  alone  for  a  few  seconds  and  collected 
himself,  so  that  his  powers  returned,  he  firmly 
decided  to  break  this  engagement,  which  threat- 
ened to  usurp  his  whole  soul-life;  and  in  time  cut 
off  all  relation  with  a  woman,  who  had  showed  so 
plainly  that  it  was  only  his  body  she  desired,  while 
she  ejected  his  soul,  which  he  would  pour  into  this 
lifeless  image  of  flesh.  She  enjoyed  the  sound  of 
his  voice,  but  the  thoughts  she  did  not  receive 
only  in  such  cases  as  when  they  were  of  direct 
benefit.  He  had  often  caught  her  looking  at  the 
lines  of  his  figure,  and  she  used  sometimes  thought- 
lessly to  grasp  his  arm  whose  swelling  muscles 
formed  a  ridge  beneath  the  soft  cloth.     He  re- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  175 

membered  now  these  many  overtures  at  the  bath, 
on  yachting;  on  going  up  to  the  lookout,  which 
he  never  visited  because  it  upset  his  nerve  system 
to  stand  on  a  bluff  without  sufficient  support. 
And  now  this  evening,  when  he  had  seen  this 
eruption  of  uncontrollable  passion,  he  saw  with 
fear  that  this  woman  was  not  of  the  developed 
race,  which  could  individualize  its  love  to  a  cer- 
tain one,  and  that  he  to  her  only  played  the  role 
of  the  indispensable  opposite  sex  in  general. 

He  had  strolled  down  to  the  strand  for  a 
breeze,  but  the  night  was  sultry.  The  sea  had 
ceased  to  roll,  and  in  the  northwest  the  heaven 
was  a  faint  melon  color,  while  out  in  the  east 
over  the  water  rested  the  night.  The  strand 
cliffs  were  still  warm,  and  he  placed  himself  down 
on  one  of  the  many  arm  chairs,  that  the  cold 
had  blasted  out  and  the  waves  had  polished 
smooth. 

The  events  he  had  just  lived  through  passed 
before  him,  and  now,  when  his  senses  were  cooled 
off,  he  saw  them  in  another  light.  His  dream 
had  always  been  that  he  should  awaken  a  woman's 
love  to  such  a  degree  that  she  should  come  beg- 
ging, crawling  to  him,  saying,  "  I  love  you,  deign 
to  love  me  !  "  Such  was  the  order  of  nature,  that 
the  weaker  approach  the  stronger  with  a  sub- 
missive mind  and  not  vice  versa,  although  the  lat- 
ter still  was  the  case  with  those  who  were  living 


176  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

with  a  trace  of  superstitious  ideas  about  some- 
thing supernaturally  exalted  in  woman,  notwith- 
standing that  investigation  had  made  it  manifest 
that  the  mysterious  was  only  confusion  and  the 
exalted  only  a  collection  of  poems  by  the  sup- 
pressed desires  of  male  propensity. 

Now  she  had  come  as  he  had  dreamed  it,  the 
woman  of  the  new  time  free  from  prejudice,  had 
shown  all  her  inward  incandescent  nature,  and  he 
had  recoiled!  Why?  Perhaps  tradition  and 
conventional  habits  still  governed  him !  For 
there  was  nothing  bold  in  her  effusion,  no  trace  of 
the  harlot  offering,  no  immodest  behavior  or  im- 
pudent mien  I  She  loved  him  in  her  way.  What 
more  could  he  desire,  and  with  such  a  love  he 
could  safely  bind  himself  to  her,  for  perhaps  not 
many  men  could  boast  of  having  lighted  such  a 
flame.  But  he  felt  no  pride  over  having  gained 
her,  for  he  felt  his  own  value,  and  rather  a  press- 
ing responsibility  which  he  would  get  rid  of;  and 
therefore  he  must  depart  from  the  island. 

In  thought  now  he  sat  and  packed  his  belong- 
ings. He  gathered  the  things  from  the  writing 
table  and  saw  the  green  empty  spread,  took  away 
the  lamp  that  shed  light  in  the  evening  and  spar- 
kled colors  in  the  daytime,  and  there  was  a 
vacuum.  Stripped  the  walls  of  their  pictures  and 
draperies,  and  the  white,  sad,  mathematical  figure 
came    forth.     He    took    the    books    from    their 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  177 

shelves,  and  the  dreadful  solitude  faced  him,  mo- 
notony, nudeness,  poverty! 

And  then  came  the  fatigue  from  bodily  efforts, 
fear  of  traveling  and  its  tiring  effects;  anxiety  of 
the  unknown  where  he  now  might  be  cast,  deprived 
of  his  accustomed  surroundings  and  her  company. 
And  he  saw  the  young  girl  in  her  childish  but 
still  majestic  beauty;  heard  her  complain,  saw  her 
whitened  cheeks,  which  another  would  cause  to 
blush  again  as  time  passed. 

Thus  he  suffered  all  the  pangs  of  separation 
through  a  whole  quarter  of  an  hour,  which  had 
seemed  to  him  as  long  as  hours,  when  in  the  dusk 
of  the  summer  night,  he  saw  a  woman's  figure  up 
on  the  rock  outlined  against  the  light  sky.  The 
splendid  contours,  that  he  knew  so  well,  assumed 
still  nobler  proportions  against  the  now  pale  yel- 
low sky,  which  could  just  as  well  be  the  end  of  a 
sunset  as  the  beginning  of  sunrise.  She  seemed 
to  have  come  from  the  custom  house  cottage,  and 
to  be  searching  for  someone.  Bareheaded  and 
with  her  hair  still  hanging  over  her  shoulders, 
turning  her  head  to  spy,  she  seemed  suddenly  to 
discover  what  she  sought,  and  with  brisk  steps 
she  hurried  down  to  the  beach  where  the  object 
of  her  search  was  sitting,  immovable,  without  the 
power  to  flee,  without  the  will  to  proclaim  him- 
self. And  when  she  reached  him  she  fell  down 
and  laid  her  head  In  his  lap  and  talked  wildly, 


1 78  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

modestly,  beseechingly,  as  though  she  was  anni- 
hilated with  shame  without  being  able  to  hold  her 
tongue  in  check. 

"  Don't  go  away,"  sobbed  she.  "  Despise  me, 
but  have  mercy!  Love  me,  love  me  or  I  will  go 
where  I  shall  never  return !  " 

There  now  awoke  in  him  the  mature  man's  In- 
tense longing  for  love.  And  when  he  saw  the 
woman  at  his  feet,  it  aroused  the  inherent  chivalry 
of  man,  who  would  see  in  its  mate  the  mistress 
not  the  slave;  and  he  arose,  lifted  her  up,  placed 
his  arm  round  her  waist  and  pressed  her  to  him. 

*'  At  my  side,  Mary,  not  at  my  feet,"  said  he. 
"  You  love  me,  for  you  knew  that  I  loved  you, 
and  now  you  belong  to  me  for  life.  And  you 
will  never  leave  me  alive,  do  3^ou  hear !  For  our 
whole  life  long.  And  now  I  place  you  on  my 
throne  and  give  you  the  power  over  me  and  my 
belongings,  my  name  and  my  property,  my  honor 
and  my  actions,  but  if  you  forget  that  it  is  I  who 
gave  you  the  power,  and  if  you  misuse  or  give  it 
away,  then  as  a  tyrant  I  will  overthrow  you  to 
such  a  depth  that  you  shall  never  see  the  sunlight 
more !  But  you  cannot  do  it,  for  you  love  me,  is 
it  not  true  that  you  love  me?  " 

He  had  placed  her  on  the  stone  stool,  and 
kneeling  he  laid  his  head  in  her  bosom. 

"  I  lay  my  head  in  your  lap,"  continued  he, 
*'  but  do  not  cut  off  my  hair  meanwhile  I  sleep 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  179 

on  your  bosom.  Let  me  uplift  you  but  do  not 
drag  me  down.  Become  better  than  I  am,  for 
you  can  when  I  protect  you  from  contact  with  the 
world's  corruption  and  misery,  In  which  I  must 
delve.  Ennoble  yourself  with  great  faculties 
which  I  do  not  possess,  so  that  we  together  shall 
become  a  perfect  whole." 

His  feelings  began  to  take  the  cooler  tone  of 
reason  and  seemed  to  quench  her  exaltation,  so 
that  she  Interrupted  him  by  placing  her  glowing 
face  to  his,  and  when  he  did  not  answer  her 
caress,  she  pressed  a  burning  kiss  on  his  lips. 

"  You  child,"  said  she,  "  don't  you  dare  to  kiss 
when  nobody  can  see  It?" 

Then  he  sprang  up,  clasped  her  round  the  neck 
and  kissed  her  throat  repeatedly  until  she  freed 
herself  from  him  with  a  laugh  and  stood  erect 
before  him. 

"  You  are  a  perfect  little  savage,"  scolded  she. 

"The  savage  Is  there,  be  careful!  "  answered 
he,  and  grasping  her  round  the  waist  they  wan- 
dered onwards  on  the  warm  sands  which  whis- 
pered round  their  feet. 

And  now  the  lighthouse  in  the  distance  blinked, 
as  the  air  had  cooled  off  and  the  dew  had  fallen. 
Out  from  the  rookeries  they  heard  the  cries  of 
the  seals  as  from  the  shipwrecked. 

They  wandered  an  hour  or  more,  and  spoke  of 
their  first   meeting,    about  their   secret   thoughts 


i8o  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

from  time  to  time;  about  the  future,  about  the 
coming  winter;  about  traveling  in  foreign  coun- 
tries; meantime  they  came  out  on  the  point  where 
the  pile  of  stones  with  a  cross  was  selected  in  mem- 
ory of  a  shipwreck  with  loss  of  life. 

Suddenly  they  caught  a  glimpse  of  two  shadows 
that  sneaked  away  and  disappeared. 

"  It  is  Vestman  and  his  sister-in-law,"  said 
Borg.  "Fie!  If  I  were  her  husband  I  would 
sink  her!  " 

"  Not  him?"  came  from  the  girl  more  hastily 
than  she  intended. 

"  He  is  not  married!  "  answered  Borg  shortly; 
"that  is  the  difference!  " 

There  was  a  silence,  a  disagreeable  silence, 
such  as  makes  one  seek  for  a  topic  for  conversa- 
tion; and  meantime  whispered  the  thoughts,  now 
untied  from  the  enchantment:  and  he  already 
longed  for  the  enchantment  again,  for  the  intoxi- 
cation, which  blinded  him,  which  turned  gray  to 
rose  color,  which  built  pedestals;  which  placed 
gilded  edges  on  cracked  china. 

At  this  they  turned  from  the  rocky  wall  to  go 
home.  The  wind  which  had  been  quite  asleep, 
now  began  to  waft  against  them  and  in  his  anxiety 
the  awakened  lover  felt  how  freshly  it  blew.  It 
was  the  north  wind  which  he  had  waited  for,  and 
which  he  now  greeted  as  a  rescuer.  For  in  a 
second  when  the  girl's  contradiction  in  a  serious 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  i8i 

matter  had  just  as  though  broken  something  In 
him,  so  that  he  felt  that  her  being  could  only  be 
soldered  to  his,  not  melted  together  with  it,  un- 
less he  gave  up  resisting  and  delivered  himself  to 
her  wholly  and  fully,  he  now  grasped  the  oppor- 
tunity to  raise  himself  again  without  treading 
upon  her. 

"  Why  do  the  people  hate  me?  "  asked  he  sud- 
denly. 

"  Because  you  are  superior  to  them,"  slipped 
from  the  girl  without  her  observing  the  confes- 
sion she  made. 

"  I  do  not  believe  it,"  answered  he,  "  for  their 
intellect  is  not  sufficient  to  value  my  superiority." 
"  Their  hate  can  pervert  their  vision !  " 
"Superbly  answered!     But  if  they  should  see 
the  miracle,  would  their  eyes  open?  " 

"Perhaps!     If  the  wonder  aroused  fear." 
"  Well,  they  shall  have  the  miracle  I     To-mor- 
row at  ten  o'clock  it  will  appear!  " 
"What?" 

"That  which  I  have  promised  you  I  " 
The  girl  looked  into  his  face  with  amazement 
as   though    she    did    not    believe    what    he    said. 
After  which  she  laughingly  interposed: 
"  If  it  should  be  cloudy  weather  then?  " 
"  But  it  won't  be,"  answered  the  commissioner 
with  decision.      "  However,  now  we  have  already 
come  so  far  as  to  speak  about  weather,  we  can 


1 82  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

even  think  of  what  your  mother  will  say  about  us." 

"  She  won't  trouble  herself  about  it,"  answered 
the  girl  at  once. 

"  It  is  astonishing  that  a  mother  does  not  pay 
any  attention  to  what  man  her  daughter  is  to  bind 
herself  in  relationship,  and  whose  name  she  is  to 
carry!      Can  that  be  immaterial  to  her?" 

"Good  night,  now!"  interrupted  Miss  Mary 
and  reached  her  mouth  for  a  kiss.  "  To-mor- 
row morning  you  will  come  and  visit  us !  Is  it 
not  so?" 

"  Certainly,"  answered  he,  "  certainly!  " 

She  walked  away. 

But  he  still  stood  on  the  same  place  and  saw 
her  slender  figure  rise  against  the  now  sulphur 
yellow  sky  as  she  stepped  upwards  on  the  hillock, 
and  when  she  came  to  the  highest  point  she 
turned  back  and  threw  a  kiss  to  him,  and  then  she 
seemed  to  sink  behind  the  slope  until  he  only 
saw  her  head  with  its  loose  hair  which  fluttered 
in  the  northern  wind. 


CHAPTER  EIGHTH 

When  the  commissioner  sat  the  following 
morning  at  breakfast  with  his  betrothed,  after 
having  been  received  without  comment  as  the  fu- 
ture son-in-law,  he  felt  again  the  combined  impres- 
sion of  a  great  calm  at  having  been  received  in  a 
little  circle,  where  common  interests  formed  a  tie 
to  unbounded  confidence;  and  at  the  same  time 
an  anxiety  over  the  necessity  of  giving  himself  up 
for  these  manifold  considerations  which  sympathy 
and  relationship  bring.  The  past  evening  had 
rushed  into  his  life  mixing  great  and  small,  as 
life  offers  it,  his  whole  history  of  love,  which  he 
had  dreamed  of  with  open  eyes,  had  passed  with 
his  eyes  purposely  blindfolded.  He  had  closed 
his  eyes  to  the  girl's  pretended  or  imaginary  ill- 
ness; closed  them  completely,  so  that  he  had  de- 
ceived himself  into  taking  it  seriously;  for  if  he 
had  not  done  so,  and  instead  had  said  plainly 
from  the  first  moment:  rise  up  and  be  well,  you 
are  only  sick  in  imagination,  then  she  would  have 
hated  him  for  life;  and  his  aim  was  to  win  her 
love.  Now  he  had  gained  her  love,  perhaps  be- 
cause  she  believed  that   she   had  deluded  him; 

183 


1 84  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

therefore  his  love  stood  in  direct  relation  to  his 
credulity;  and  when  now  in  the  morning  he  re- 
peated to  himself  again  and  again  the  question: 
Do  you  believe  in  your  Mary?  his  rested  reason 
translated  It  thus:  Am  I  sure  I  can  delude  you? 
No,  there  does  not  exist  a  love  with  open  eyes; 
and  to  gain  a  woman  by  frankness  is  Impossible; 
to  approach  her  with  raised  head,  and  with  plain 
words  is  to  drive  her  away.  He  had  begun  with 
lies  and  must  go  on  with  dissembling.  However, 
now  while  the  conversation  drifted  between  trifling 
things  and  effusive  expressions  of  feelings,  it 
gave  no  time  for  worry,  and  the  pleasure  of  being 
in  a  home  between  two  women  made  everything 
so  bright  and  soft,  that  he  delivered  himself  up 
to  the  enjoyment  of  being  the  petted  one,  the 
child,  the  little  one,  the  son  of  the  mother-in-law; 
and  he  did  not  observe  that  the  daughter,  who 
had  already  outgrown  her  mother,  treating  her  as 
though  she  the  mother  was  her  child,  by  simple 
syllogism  gradually  took  authority  over  him,  who 
called  her  equal  "  mother-in-law."  It  amused 
him,  this  reversing  of  nature's  order,  and  he  had 
always  before  him  the  image  of  the  giant,  who 
let  the  children  pull  out  three  hairs  from  his 
beard,  but  only  three.  As  they  were  sitting  at 
their  coffee  and  chatting,  there  was  heard  a  mur- 
muring from  the  people  down  on  the  beach. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  185 

From  the  window  they  saw  them  gathered  on 
the  landings,  sometimes  standing  immovable, 
with  hands  shading  their  eyes:  sometimes  rock- 
ing on  both  feet,  as  though  the  ground  was  burn- 
ing beneath  them,  or  as  if  they  could  not  stand 
still  from  fear. 

"It  is  the  miracle!"  cried  the  girl,  and  has- 
tened out  accompanied  by  her  mother  and  her  be- 
trothed. 

Coming  out  on  the  slope  the  ladies  stopped  as 
though  struck  by  fright,  when  on  this  clear  sunny 
morning,  they  saw  a  corpse-white  colossal  moon 
rising  above  a  graveyard  with  black  cypress,  float- 
ing on  the  sea. 

The  commissioner,  who  had  not  calculated  the 
effect  at  this  point  of  view,  did  not  see  quickly 
enough  the  relation  of  things,  and  stood  deathly 
pale  from  the  shock  which  follows  something  mon- 
strous and  unexpected  in  the  otherwise  law-bound 
nature.  He  hastened  past  the  ladies  who  stood 
petrified  and  unable  to  move,  and  came  down  to 
the  strand  where  the  people  were  gathered.  In  a 
moment  he  found  the  solution  of  the  riddle.  His 
intended  marble  palace  had  become  involuntarily 
framed  between  a  projecting,  rounded  cliff  on  one 
side  and  a  pine  top  on  the  other,  so  that  the  lime- 
stone slab  showed  as  a  round  circle  and,  with  the 
two  windows  which  v/ere  too  faintly  painted,  it 
imitated  the  map  of  the  moon's  disk. 


1 86  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

The  people  who  had  been  posted  as  to  the 
exact  hour  when  the  miracle  would  appear,  as 
promised  by  the  commissioner,  regarded  the  ap- 
proaching man  with  frightened  but  venerating 
glances  and  the  men  contrary  to  what  had  been 
their  habit  to  him  raised  their  hats  and  caps. 

"Now  what  do  you  say  about  my  mirage?" 
asked  he  jokingly. 

Nobody  answered,  but  the  head  pilot,  who  was 
the  most  courageous,  pointed  northwest  towards 
the  heavens,  where  the  real  moon  was  hanging 
pale  in  its  first  quarter. 

The  miracle  thus  was  crushing,  and  the  strong 
impressions  which  the  two  moons  had  already 
produced  was  too  deep  to  be  effaced  with  an  ex- 
planation. And  when  the  commissioner  made  an 
attempt  to  the  beginning  of  which  nobody  lis- 
tened and  the  people  stood  infatuated  just  as 
though  enamored  of  the  fear  of  the  inexplicable, 
he  ceased  trying  to  remove  their  belief.  He  had 
wished  to  give  them  a  proof  that  neither  he  nor 
nature  could  break  laws,  and,  nevertheless,  chance 
had  made  him  a  wizard. 

When  he  turned  back  he  found  his  betrothed 
in  an  ecstatic  state  restrained  by  her  mother,  but 
when  he  appeared,  she  freed  herself  and  falling 
on  her  knees  she  cried  with  half  insane  gestures, 
and  words  which  seemed  to  have  been  borrowed 
from  some  spiritualistic  circle. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  187 

"  Mighty  spirit,  we  fear  thee  1  Take  away  our 
fear,  that  we  may  love  thee!  " 

The  case  had  already  assumed  a  hazardous 
turn  and  the  commissioner  tried  with  all  his  art 
to  explain  the  involuntary  miracle,  but  in  vain. 
The  enjoyment  of  being  infatuated,  the  numbness 
of  fear  and,  behind  it,  the  lurking  feeling  of  am- 
bition not  to  admit  the  confusion  of  senses,  had 
so  taken  possession  of  the  young  girl's  mind  that 
no  remonstrances  or  assurances  availed.  The 
mother  with  her  unchanging,  even  temperament 
did  not  seem  to  know  where  she  was  and  had  for- 
gotten the  whole  phenomenon  of  nature  through 
her  daughter's  disquieting  behavior. 

But  now  the  mass  of  people  on  the  beach  had, 
through  Miss  Mary's  cries  and  gesticulations, 
turned  their  attention  from  the  performance  out 
on  the  sea  towards  her,  and  when  they  saw  the 
young  woman  on  her  knees  before  the  white 
dressed  man,  with  his  deep  dark  glances  and  bare 
head,  out  here  on  the  rock,  there  must  have  passed 
before  them  some  reminiscences  from  the  Bible 
history  about  a  young  man  who  did  miracles;  for 
they  crowded  together  in  haste  and  began  to  whis- 
per, while  at  the  exhortation  of  the  head  pilot 
one  of  the  women  hastened  into  the  nearest  cot- 
tage and  returned  with  a  three-years-old  child 
which  had  a  foul  ulcer  on  its  cheek. 

With  the  ability  to  call  forth  a  mirage  there 


1 88  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

should  also  follow  a  supernatural  knowledge  of 
healing. 

The  role  which  was  thrown  on  the  commis- 
sioner, began  to  trouble  him  beyond  measure,  and 
when  he  saw  the  fishing  population,  pilots  and 
custom  house  men,  leave  their  work,  and  carpen- 
ters and  finishers  leave  the  building  of  the  chapel 
to  listen  to  his  words  as  to  prophesies  with  miracu- 
lous power,  he  became  afraid  as  though  before 
a  power  of  nature  that  he  had  conjured  up,  but 
could  not  check.  The  moment,  hovv^ever,  had 
come  when  he  must  express  himself  exactly, 
plainly,  and  turn  them  away. 

"  Good  people,"  commenced  he.  But  silently 
the  reflection  came:  how  to  go  on,  what  words  to 
use,  when  each  expression  required  an  explanation 
which  again  presupposed  foreknowledge,  which 
was  lacking.  And  during  the  second  he  medi- 
tated over  the  distance  that  lay  between  him  and 
them,  he  heard  steps  approaching,  and  turning 
around,  he  saw  a  man  who  resembled  an  old 
sailor  on  his  leave. 

The  man  lifted  a  round  felt  hat  and  looked 
somewhat  timorous  at  first,  but  coming  nearer  he 
straightened  himself  up  and  was  just  going  to  say 
something,  when  the  commissioner  relieved  him 
from  his  embarrassment  by  the  question: 

"  Perhaps  you  are  the  Home  Mission  preacher 
whom  we  expect?  " 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  189 

*'  I  am  the  same !  "  answered  the  newcomer. 

*'  Will  you  not  say  a  few  words  to  the  people 
here,  who  are  In  a  state  of  tumult  on  account  of 
a  phenomenon  of  nature  which  they  do  not  wish 
to  have  explained  and  which  I  at  this  moment 
cannot  elucidate" — the  commissioner  grasped  at 
this  In  his  eagerness  to  get  out  of  his  false  position. 

The  preacher  at  once  declared  himself  pre- 
pared. Stroking  his  long  chin  whiskers  he  took 
a  Bible  from  his  pocket. 

When  the  people  saw  the  black  book  a  tremor 
passed  through  them  and  some  of  the  men  uncov- 
ered their  heads. 

The  preacher  turned  the  pages  a  moment  and 
finally  stopped,  cleared  his  throat  and  began  to 
read. 

''  And  I  beheld  when  he  had  opened  the  sixth 
seal,  and,  lo,  there  was  a  great  earthquake;  and 
the  sun  became  black  as  sack  cloth  of  hair,  and 
the  moon  became  as  blood.  And  the  stars  of 
heaven  fell  unto  the  earth,  even  as  a  fig  tree  cast- 
eth  her  untimely  figs,  when  she  is  shaken  of  a 
mighty  wind.  And  the  heavens  departed  as  a 
scroll  when  it  is  rolled  together;  and  every  moun- 
tain and  island  were  moved  out  of  their  places. 
And  the  kings  of  the  earth,  and  the  great  men, 
and  the  rich  men,  and  the  chief  captains,  and  the 
mighty  men,  and  every  bond  man,  and  every  free 
man,  hid  themselves  in  the  dens  and  in  the  rocks 


190  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

of  the  mountains.  And  said  to  the  mountains  and 
rocks,  Fall  on  us,  and  hide  us  from  the  face  of 
Him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne,  and  from  the 
wrath  of  the  Lamb.  For  the  great  day  of  His 
wrath  has  come;  and  who  shall  be  able  to  stand?  " 

The  commissioner,  who  at  once  observed  the 
dangerous  turn  the  affair  had  taken,  had  drawn 
his  betrothed  half  forcibly  from  the  dangerous 
neighborhood,  and  got  her  down  to  the  beach  so 
that  he  could  give  her  the  right  views  and  show, 
that  it  was  no  moon  which  had  fallen  from  the 
heaven,  that  it  was  only  the  Italian  landscape  he 
had  promised  to  arrange  for  her  birthday. 

But  now  it  was  too  late.  The  girl's  inner  eye 
had  already  seen  the  vision  in  Its  first  form,  and 
the  preacher's  exciting  Interpretation  had  etched 
in  that  first  delusion.  He  had  toyed  with  the 
spirits  of  nature,  conjured  a  foe  to  help  him,  as 
he  believed,  and  then  all  had  gone  over  to  the 
foe  so  that  he  now  stood  alone. 

While  Mary's  glances  were  still  riveted  to  the 
preacher  on  the  rock,  he  turned,  as  a  trial,  to 
the  mother  and  whispered: 

"  Help  us  out  of  this.  Follow  me  out  to  the 
skerry  and  see  that  It  Is  only  a  plaything,  a  birth- 
day joke." 

"  I  cannot  judge  In  these  things,"  answered  the 
mother,  "  and  will  not  judge.  But  I  believe  .  .  . 
that  you  should  be  married  soon." 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  191 

It  was  an  advice,  sober,  prosaic,  but  from  this 
old  lady,  who  was  herself  a  mother,  it  sounded 
so  prudent,  especially  as  it  agreed  with  his  own 
sharp  understanding,  he  found,  however,  the  ex- 
planation somewhat  simplified.  And  after  the 
hint  he  had  received  he  went  straight  to  the  girl, 
and  placing  his  arm  round  her  waist,  looked  into 
her  eyes  with  a  smile,  which  she  could  not  fail 
to  understand,  and  kissed  her  lips. 

At  the  same  moment  the  girl  seemed  released 
from  the  wizard  up  on  the  rock,  and  without  re- 
sistance she  clung  to  her  friend's  arm  and  fol- 
lowed him  almost  dancing  to  her  mother's  cottage. 

"  Thanks,"  whispered  she  as  she  glanced  into 
his  eyes,  "  I  thank  you  that  you  —  how  shall  I 
say  It?" 

"  Delivered  you  fr©m  the  hobgoblin,"  filled  In 
Borg. 

"  Yes,  from  the  goblins!  " 

And  she  turned  to  look  at  the  passed  danger. 

"Do  not  look  back!"  warned  her  betrothed 
as  he  pulled  Mary  through  the  cottage  door, 
while  fragments  from  the  preacher's  flow  of 
words  were  wafted  down  to  him  by  the  wind. 


CHAPTER  NINTH 

When  the  commissioner  awoke  one  morning 
eight  days  later  after  a  night  of  perfect  rest,  his 
first  clear  thought  was  that  he  must  leave  the 
skerry,  go  anywhere  to  be  alone,  collect  himself, 
find  himself  again.  The  preacher's  arrival  had 
the  desired  effect  in  one  way,  namely  to  "  scare 
the  mob,"  so  that  the  tumult  and  rudeness  ceased; 
but  on  the  other  hand  the  commissioner  had  not 
been  able  to  enjoy  the  newly  gained  peace,  for 
the  exalted  condition  of  his  betrothed  obliged  him 
to  keep  her  always  in  his  sight.  So  he  had  ac- 
companied her,  and  formally  guarded  her  from 
morning  to  night;  and  by  endless  talk  upon  the 
questions  of  religion  tried  to  keep  her  aloof  from 
the  preacher's  seducing  talk.  All  these  matters 
which  he  had  fought  through  in  his  youth,  he  now 
had  to  fight  over  again;  and  as  new  counter-proofs 
had  been  brought  forth  since  then,  he  must  reedit 
his  whole  apology.  He  improvised  psychological 
explanations  of  God,  faith,  miracles,  eternity  and 
prayer;  and  he  imagined  that  the  girl  understood 
him.  But  when  after  three  days  he  found  that 
she  held  the  same  position  and  that  this  matter 
of  feeling  lay  outside  the  conversation,  he  dropped 

192 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  193 

the  whole  subject  and  sought  by  awakening  the 
erratical  with  its  new  sphere  of  feeling  to  drive 
away  the  first.  But  this  he  must  soon  give  up, 
for  to  speak  of  that  which  should  be  lived  only 
excited  the  girl's  feelings  still  more,  and  he  soon 
observed  that  there  existed  secret  bridges  between 
the  religious  ecstasy  and  the  sensual  one.  From 
the  love  of  Christ  she  ran  so  easily  over  to  love 
of  the  man  on  that  broad  drawbridge  the  love  of 
one's  neighbor,  and  from  abstinence  one  could 
trip  over  the  footbridge  renunciation  to  Its  neigh- 
bor penance;  a  little  contention  awakened  the  dis- 
agreeable feeling  of  debt  which  must  be  resolved 
in  a  lustful  feeling  —  the  reconciliation. 

In  his  need  he  must  first  tear  up  the  bridges, 
place  her  face  to  face  with  carnal  desire,  awake 
her  avidity  for  the  temporal,  which  he  delineated 
in  glowing  colors.  But  when  he  had  so  succeeded 
and  retreated  at  the  last  moment,  there  arose  the 
coldness  of  disappointment  In  her,  and  when  he 
then  tried  to  cultivate  her  feelings,  and  lead  them 
out  to  the  thoughts  of  offspring  and  family,  she 
withdrew  and  explained  to  him  with  determina- 
tion, that  she  would  not  have  any  children.  She 
could  even  use  a  phraseology  which  Is  current 
among  a  certain  group  of  women,  saying  that  she 
would  not  be  the  womb  which  he  lacked;  or  carry 
his  heirs,  whom  she  must  with  danger  to  her  life 
bring  to  the  world  for  him. 


194  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

Then  he  felt  that  nature  had  placed  something 
between  them  which  he  did  not  yet  understand. 
He  consoled  himself  by  imagining  that  it  was  only 
the  butterfly's  fear  to  lay  its  eggs  and  die,  the 
flower's  suspicion  that  Its  beauty  would  fade  away 
with  the  setting  of  Its  seed. 

But  he  had  worn  himself  out  in  these  eight 
days;  his  fine  wheels  of  thought  had  begun  to  halt 
in  their  pivot  holes,  and  the  spring  in  the  move- 
ment had  become  relaxed. 

After  such  a  day  of  exertion,  when  he  would 
have  worked  for  a  couple  of  hours,  his  head  was 
filled  with  trifles.  Small  words  repeated  them- 
selves almost  audibly  to  his  ear;  gesticulations 
and  mannerisms,  that  she  had  used  in  their  con- 
versation, miraged  themselves,  suggestions  how 
he  ought  to  have  answered  now  and  then,  and  the 
recollection  of  an  appropriate  repartee  which  he 
had  made  gave  him  a  momentary  pleasure.  In 
a  word,  his  head  was  full  of  bagatelles,  and  now 
he  observed  that  he  had  tried  to  straighten  out  a 
chaos;  that  he  had  conversed  as  a  schoolboy  In- 
stead of  exchanging  thoughts  with  a  mature 
woman ;  that  he  had  given  out  from  himself 
masses  of  power  without  getting  anything  In  re- 
turn; that  he  had  placed  a  dry  sponge  In  the 
center  of  his  soul,  and  that  the  sponge  had  swelled, 
while  he  himself  had  become  dry. 

He  loathed  everything;  was  tired,  and  longed 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  195 

to  get  out  for  a  moment;  for  be  free  forever  he 
could  not. 

When  he  now  looked  out  through  the  window, 
about  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  he  saw  only  a 
dense  fog  which  stood  immovable  notwithstand- 
ing a  light  breeze  from  the  south.  But  far  from 
being  discouraged  thereby,  he  felt  attracted  by 
this  light,  white  obscurity,  which  would  hide  him 
and  seclude  him  from  the  little  fragment  of  the 
earth,  where  he  now  felt  himself  tied  down. 

The  barometer  and  weather  vane  told  him  that 
there  would  be  sunshine  later  in  the  day,  and 
therefore  he  stepped  into  his  boat  without  long 
preparations;  only  provided  with  chart  and  com- 
pass, on  which,  however,  he  did  not  intend  to 
rely,  as  he  could  hear  the  whistling  buoy  three 
miles  out  at  sea,  just  in  the  direction  in  which  he 
would  seek  a  landing. 

He  therefore  put  full  sail  on  and  was  soon  In 
the  fog.  Here,  where  the  eyes  were  free  from 
all  impressions  of  color  and  form,  he  felt  first  the 
pleasure  of  Isolation  from  the  medley  of  an  outer 
world.  He  had  as  it  were  his  own  atmosphere 
around  him,  soaring  onwards  alone  as  on  another 
celestial  body,  In  a  medium,  which  was  not  air  but 
water  vapors,  more  agreeable  and  more  refresh- 
ing to  inhale  than  the  exsiccating  air  with  Its 
superfluous  seventy-nine  per  cent  of  nitrogen, 
which    had    remained    without    evident    purpose, 


196  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

when  the  elements  of  the  earth  emerged  from  the 
chaos  of  gases. 

It  was  not  an  obscure,  smoke  colored  mist, 
through  which  the  sunlight  shone.  It  was  light, 
like  newly  melted  silver.  Warm  as  wadding  it 
lay  healingly  round  his  tired  ego,  protecting  it 
from  jars  and  pressure.  He  enjoyed  for  a  mo- 
ment this  fully-awake  rest  of  the  senses,  without 
sound,  without  color,  without  smell,  and  he  felt 
how  his  pained  head  was  soothed  by  this  safety 
from  contact  with  others.  He  was  sure  of  not 
being  questioned;  needed  not  to  answer,  nor  talk. 
The  apparatus  was  standing  still  a  moment,  now 
that  all  conducts  had  been  cut  off;  and  so  he  began 
again  to  think  clearly,  systematically  over  all  that 
had  passed.  But  what  he  had  just  gone  through 
was  so  inferior,  so  trifling,  that  he  must  first  let 
the  bilge  water  run  off  before  the  fresh  came  in. 

In  the  distance  he  heard  the  whistling  buoy  cry 
at  intervals  of  several  minutes,  and  guided  by  the 
sound  he  steered  his  course  right  into  the  mist. 

It  became  silent  again,  and  only  the  splashing 
of  the  boat  at  the  bow  and  the  purling  aft  in  the 
wake  made  him  conscious  that  he  was  moving  for- 
wards. Immediately  after  he  heard  a  sea  gull 
cry  in  the  fog,  and  at  the  same  time  it  seemed  to 
him  that  he  heard  the  dashing  and  rustle  about 
the  prow  of  a  boat  coming  abaft,  and  when  he 
shouted  to  avoid  the  danger,  he  received  no  an- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  197 

swer,  but  heard  only  the  hissing  of  the  water  as 
when  a  boat  Is  faUing  off. 

After  a  moment  of  sailing  he  observed  to  wind- 
ward the  top  of  a  mast  with  mainsail  and  jib,  but 
nothing  was  to  be  seen  of  the  hull  or  helmsman 
for  they  were  hidden  by  the  high  swells  of  the 
sea. 

This  occurrence  under  other  circumstances 
would  not  have  disturbed  his  thought,  but  now  it 
made  an  Impression  which  was  momentarily  inex- 
plicable, and  which  caused  a  fear,  which  was  only 
one  step  removed  from  thoughts  of  persecution. 
The  newly  awakened  suspicions  were  further 
aroused,  when  he  shortly  after  caught  sight  of  the 
haunting  boat  which  shot  by  him  on  the  lee  side, 
as  though  painted  on  the  mist,  without  his  being 
able  to  get  sight  of  the  helmsman  who  was  hidden 
by  the  mainsail. 

He  now  hailed  again,  but  instead  of  an  answer 
he  saw  only  the  boat  fall  off  so  much  that  he  ob- 
served that  the  stern  sheet  was  empty;  and  then 
the  apparition  vanished  in  the  all  devouring 
mist. 

Accustomed  to  free  himself  from  fear  of  the 
unknown,  he  at  once  formed  suggestions  to  ex- 
plain It,  but  stopped  finally  at  the  question,  why 
the  helmsman  hid  himself,  for  that  there  must  be 
a  helmsman  on  a  sailboat,  which  did  not  drift,  he 
had  no  doubt.     Why  did  he  not  want  to  be  seen? 


198  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

In  usual  cases  one  does  not  want  to  be  seen  when 
going  on  a  bad  errand,  wishing  to  be  by  oneself, 
or  intending  to  frighten  somebody.  That  the  un- 
known sailor  did  not  seek  solitude  was  probable, 
as  he  held  the  same  course,  and  if  he  would 
frighten  an  intrepid  person,  who  was  not  suscepti- 
ble to  superstition,  he  could  find  some  better  way. 
However  he  held  his  course  onward  towards  the 
buoy,  incessantly,  doggedly  pursued  by  the  haunt- 
ing boat  to  the  leaward,  still  at  such  a  distance, 
that  it  appeared  only  as  condensed  fog. 

Upon  coming  farther  out  where  the  wind  was 
stronger  the  mist  seemed  to  grow  somewhat  thin- 
ner, and  like  long  silver  bullion  lay  the  fog-sil- 
vered sunlight  on  the  crests  of  the  waves.  With 
the  rising  of  the  wind  the  crying  of  the  buoy  in- 
creased, and  now  he  steered  straight  Into  the 
sunlight  where  the  mist  had  parted,  and  ran  at 
highest  speed  towards  the  buoy.  There  it  lay 
swinging  on  the  wave,  cinnabar-red  and  shining, 
moist  as  a  taken-out  lung  with  its  great  black 
windpipe  pointed  slanting  upwards  into  the  air. 
And  when  the  wave  next  time  compressed  the 
air,  it  raised  a  cry,  as  though  the  sea  roared  after 
the  sun,  the  bottom  chain  clinked  until  it  had  run 
out,  and  now  when  the  waves  sank  and  sucked 
back  the  air,  there  arose  a  roaring  out  of  the 
depth  as  from  the  giant  proboscis  of  a  drowning 
mastodon. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  199 

It  was  the  first  mighty  impression  he  had  had 
after  a  month  of  prattle  and  trivialities. 

He  admired  the  genius  of  man,  that  had  hung 
this  buoy  on  the  insidious  wolf,  the  sea,  that  it 
should  itself  caution  its  defenseless  victims.  He 
envied  this  hermit,  who  was  permitted  to  lie  fet- 
tered to  a  bottom  rock  In  the  middle  of  the  sea 
and  with  its  roaring  to  beat  the  wind  and  wave 
day  and  night  so  that  it  could  be  heard  miles 
around ;  to  be  the  first  to  give  the  voyager  a  wel- 
come to  his  land;  and  to  wail  forth  its  pain  and 
be  heard. 

The  sight  was  quickly  passed,  and  the  deml- 
darkness  again  closed  round  the  boat,  which  now 
fell  off  towards  the  skerry  for  which  he  had 
started  to  rest.  For  half  an  hour  he  lay  on  the 
same  tack  until  he  heard  the  breakers  beating  on 
the  strand;  then  he  fell  off  to  leeward  and  soon 
sped  Into  a  cove  where  he  could  land. 

It  was  the  last  skerry  outside  the  channel  and 
consisted  of  a  couple  of  acres  of  red  gneiss  with- 
out any  vegetation  other  than  a  few  lichens  on 
places  where  the  drifting  Ice  had  not  scraped  the 
rocks  perfectly  clean.  Only  sea  gulls  and  mews 
had  their  resting  place  here,  and  now  as  the  com- 
missioner moored  his  boat  and  stepped  up  on  the 
highest  point  of  the  skerry  they  gave  forth  cries 
of  alarm.  Here  he  wrapped  himself  in  his  blan- 
ket, and  placed  himself  In  a  well-polished  crevice, 


200  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

which  made  him  a  comfortable  arm  chair.  Here, 
without  witness,  without  auditors,  he  gave  him- 
self up  to  thoughts  and  let  them  loose,  confessed 
himself,  scrutinized  himself  Inwardly  and  heard 
his  own  voice  from  within.  Only  two  months  of 
rubbing  against  other  beings,  and  he  had  through 
the  law  of  accommodation  lost  the  better  part  of 
himself,  had  become  used  to  acquiescing  to  avoid 
disputes,  drilled  himself  to  yield  to  avoid  a  break, 
and  developed  into  a  characterless,  malleable, 
sociable  fellow;  with  his  head  full  of  bagatelles 
and  being  urged  to  speak  in  an  abbreviated,  sim- 
plified vocabulary,  he  felt  that  his  scale  of  lan- 
guage had  lost  its  semi-tones,  and  that  his  thoughts 
had  been  switching  In  on  old  worn  rails,  which 
led  back  to  the  ballast  place.  Old  lax  sophisms 
about  respecting  others'  belief,  that  everybody 
will  be  happy  in  his  grime,  had  crept  back  Into 
him,  and  he  had  from  pure  politeness  performed 
as  a  wizard  and  finally  got  a  dangerous  competitor 
on  his  hands,  who  every  moment  threatened  to 
liberate  the  only  soul  he  would  unite  with  his  own. 

A  smile  crossed  his  lips  when  he  thought  of 
how  he  had  fooled  these  people,  who  believed  they 
had  fooled  him:  and  with  a  subdued  voice  he 
involuntarily  ejaculated,  "  asses,"  which  made 
him  start,  frightened  at  the  thought  that  somebody 
might  have  heard  him. 

And  so  the  silent  thoughts  continued:     They 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  201 

believed  they  had  caught  his  soul,  and  he  had 
caught  them !  They  Imagined  that  he  went  their 
errands,  and  they  did  not  know  that  he  used  them 
as  a  gymnastlcal  exercise  for  his  soul  and  to  feel 
the  enjoyment  of  power. 

But  these  thoughts,  which  he  had  not  dared  to 
acknowledge  before  as  his  own,  proclaimed  them- 
selves now  as  the  children  of  his  soul,  big,  healthy 
children,  whom  he  acknowledged  as  his  own. 
And  what  had  he  done  otherwise  than  the  others 
had  willed  to  do,  but  could  not  I  And  this  young 
woman,  who  believed  she  had  turned  a  hand  or- 
gan for  herself,  did  not  suspect  that  she  was  se- 
lected  to   the   sounding  board   of   his   soul  .   .  . 

At  this  moment  he  jumped  up,  and  interrupted 
the  course  of  his  dangerous  thoughts,  for  he  plainly 
heard  footsteps  on  the  flat  rocks  in  the  fog,  and 
although  he  at  once  guessed  that  it  was  an  error 
of  hearing,  caused  by  the  solitude  and  fear  of  be- 
ing taken  unawares,  he  turned  his  steps  towards 
his  boat.  But  when  he  found  it  in  good  condi- 
tion, he  decided  to  go  around  the  skerry  to  search 
for  the  other  boat,  for  there  must  be  one  here, 
since  another  being  had  come  over.  He  climbed 
on  the  strand  bowlders  and  soon  found  behind  the 
next  point  on  the  lee  side  a  boat  with  the  same 
sprit  sail  rig,  as  he  had  seen  out  on  the  sea.  It 
was  thus  evident  that  the  sailor  must  be  on  the 
skerry,  and  now  the  commissioner  began  a  razzia 


202  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

in  the  fog,  but  always  kept  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  boats,  so  that  he  could  cut  off  retreat. 
When  after  having  cried  out  several  times  with- 
out getting  an  answer  he  finally  saw  that  he  must 
leave  the  boats  in  order  to  catch  the  mysterious 
being,  he  went  down  to  the  boats,  and  took  off 
the  tillers  to  make  every  escape  impossible,  and  so 
he  went  into  the  mist  again.  He  heard  steps  be- 
fore him  and  followed  them  by  the  sound,  but 
soon  heard  them  in  an  entirely  other  direction. 
Tired  of  the  hunt  and  provoked  by  the  frultless- 
ness  of  the  endeavors,  he  decided  to  make  a  short 
ending  to  the  scene,  as  he  had  no  mind  to  wait  un- 
til the  fog  had  disappeared. 

With  as  loud  a  voice  as  he  could  command,  he 
cried : 

"  If  there  is  anybody  there,  answer,  for  I  am 
going  to  shoot." 

"  Lord  Jesus!  Do  not  shoot!  "  was  heard  in 
the  fog. 

The  commissioner  seemed  to  have  heard  this 
voice  before,  but  a  very  long  time  ago,  perhaps 
in  his  youth.  And  now  when  he  approached  the 
place,  where  the  unknown  stood,  and  saw  its  sil- 
houette outlines  gray  to  gray,  there  awoke  old 
memories  of  these  contours  of  a  human  being. 
The  inward  bowed  knees,  the  arms  all  too  long 
and  the  deformed  left  shoulder  had  a  counterpart 
picture  In  memory's  storage  of  a  schoolmate  In 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  203 

the  third  class  in  the  high  school.  But  when  he 
caught  sight  of  the  colporteur's  American  whiskers 
appearing  through  the  mist,  the  picture  did  not 
correspond  longer,  and  he  only  saw  the  man  upon 
the  rock,  who  had  applied  the  Revelation  to  the 
mirage. 

With  a  raised  cap  and  a  frightened  look  he  ap- 
proached the  commissioner,  who  did  not  feel  him- 
self safe  with  this  sneaking  pursuer,  for  In  reality- 
he  carried  no  firearms.  To  disguise  his  uncer- 
tainty he  assumed  a  sharp  tone,  when  he  asked: 

"  Why  do  you  hide  from  me?  " 

"  I  have  not  hidden  myself,  the  mist  did  it," 
answered  the  preacher  softly  and  Insinuatingly. 

"  But  why  were  you  not  sitting  at  the  tiller  In 
your  boat?  " 

*'  Hm,  I  did  not  know  that  one  was  obliged  to 
sit  on  the  stern  sheet  and  therefore  I  sat  to  wind- 
ward to  keep  the  boat  buoyant!  For  you  see  I 
had  a  sheet  on  the  end  of  the  tiller  such  as  we  use 
up  in  Roslagen." 

The  explanations  were  acceptable,  but  still  did 
not  answer  the  question,  why  he  followed  the  com- 
missioner out  here.  And  he  felt  now,  that  here 
must  be  a  close  fight  of  souls,  for  It  was  not  by 
chance  that  they  had  met  out  here. 

'*  What  do  you  seek  out  here  so  early  in  the 
morning?"  the  commissioner  took  up  the  broken 
thread. 


204  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

"  Yes,  how  shall  I  say  It,  I  feel  sometimes,  as 
though  I  am  in  need  of  being  alone  with  myself." 

The  answer  found  a  certain  echo  in  the  ques- 
tioner, and  at  the  expression  of  sympathy,  which 
the  preacher  could  read  in  his  face,  he  added: 

"  For,  you  see,  when  I  search  myself  in  medita- 
tion and  prayer  and  find  myself,  even  so  I  find 
my  God." 

A  naiVe  confession  lay  In  these  words,  but  the 
commissioner  would  not  translate  the  Involuntary 
heresy  and  draw  such  conclusions  as :  God  is  thus 
my  own  self  or  In  my  own  self,  because  he  held  a 
certain  esteem  for  this  man,  who  could  be  alone 
with  a  fiction,  and  thus  to  a  certain  degree 
alone. 

While  the  commissioner  regarded  the  preacher's 
face,  which  was  overgrown  with  long  brown 
whiskers  except  on  the  upper  lip  as  sailors  and 
colporteurs  usually  wear  them,  probably  to  let 
out  the  spoken  word  and  still  resemble  an  apostle, 
he  seemed  to  perceive  a  face  behind  this  face,  and 
annoyed  by  this  labor  which  his  memory  had  un- 
consciously undertaken,  he  asked  bluntly : 

"  Have  we  not  met  each  other  before?  " 

"  Yes,  certainly  we  have,"  answered  the 
preacher;  "  and  you,  sir  commissioner,  have,  per- 
haps without  knowing  It,  had  such  a  great  influ- 
ence on  my  life,  that  It  might  be  said  you  deter- 
mined my  path." 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  205 

"  Oh,  no !  Tell  me  about  It,  for  I  do  not  re- 
member it!  "  said  the  commissioner,  and  placing 
himself  on  the  rock,  he  invited  the  other  to  sit 
down. 

"  Yes,  It  Is  certainly  about  twenty-five  years  ago 
that  we  were  together  In  the  third  class  at 
school  .   .  . 

"  What  was  your  name  then?  "  Interrupted  the 
commissioner. 

"  At  that  time  I  was  called  Olsson  and  nick- 
named Ox-Olle,  because  my  father  was  a  farmer 
and  I  was  dressed  in  homespun  clothes." 

"Olsson?  Wait  a  moment!  You  could 
reckon  best  of  us  all." 

"  Yes,  so  it  was !  But  there  came  a  day,  and  It 
was  the  principal's  fiftieth  birthday.  We  had 
dressed  the  school  with  leaves  and  flowers,  and 
after  the  lessons  were  ended  someone  proposed 
that  the  boys  in  our  class  should  take  the  bouquets 
and  carry  them  home  to  the  principal's  wife  and 
daughter.  I  remember  that  you  thought  it  un- 
necessary as  the  family  of  the  principal  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  school,  but  often  encroached  on 
its  affairs  in  a  disturbing  manner.  However,  you 
went  —  and  so  did  I.  As  I  walked  up  the  steps, 
you  caught  sight  of  my  homespun  clothes  I  pre- 
sume, and  noticing  that  I  carried  the  nicest  bou- 
quet, you  burst  out :  '  Is  Saul  also  among  the 
prophets  I '  " 


2o6  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

"  That  I  have  entirely  forgotten,"  said  the  com- 
missioner very  shortly. 

"  But  I  never  forgot  it,"  responded  the  preacher 
with  trembling  voice.  "  I  had  had  it  thrown  in 
my  face,  that  I  was  the  scabby  sheep,  the  intruder, 
who  could  never  seriously  extend  homage  to  a 
woman  of  station.  I  quit  school  in  order  to  de- 
vote myself  to  business  and  thereby  gain  money 
and  fine  clothes  quickly,  and  learn  manners  and  re- 
fined language.  But  I  never  gained  a  first  class 
position.  My  exterior,  my  language,  my  appear- 
ance were  against  me.  Then  I  began  to  go  alone 
by  myself,  and  in  the  solitude  I  found  powers  grow- 
ing in  me  which  I  had  never  suspected.  Clergy- 
man I  had  first  thought  to  be,  but  now  it  was  too 
late.  The  solitude  gave  me  fears  of  human  be- 
ings, and  these  fears  of  human  beings  made  me 
entirely  alone,  so  alone  that  I  must  search  for  my 
only  acquaintance  in  God,  and  in  the  Saviour  of 
the  neglected,  the  scabby,  the  outcasts.  Our  Lord 
and  Master  Jesus  Christ.  This  I  have  to  thank 
you  fori  " 

The  last  words  were  spoken  with  a  certain  bit- 
terness, and  the  commissioner  found  it  prudent  to 
have  fair  play  and  broke  out. 

"  Then  you  have  gone  on  hating  me  for  twenty- 
five  years?  " 

"  Excessively !  But  no  longer  since  I  have  left 
the  revenge  to  God." 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  207 

"  So,  you  have  a  God  who  revenges!  Do  you 
believe  that  He  selects  you  for  an  implement,  or 
do  you  think  that  he  will  let  His  electric  spark 
strike  me,  or  that  He  is  going  to  blow  over  my 
boat  or  mark  me  with  the  smallpox?  " 

"  The  ways  of  the  Lord  are  past  knowing,  but 
the  ways  of  iniquity  are  manifest  to  every- 
body!" 

"  Do  you  see  such  gross  iniquity  in  a  boy's 
thoughtless  talk,  that  God  should  persecute  him  a 
whole  man's  age?  I  wonder  if  that  revenging 
God  is  not  in  your  heart,  where  you  lately  insisted 
that  you  made  appointments  with  Him?  " 

Snared  by  his  own  words  the  preacher  could  not 
longer  control  himself. 

"  You  blaspheme !  Now  I  know  who  you  are  I 
The  apple  does  not  fall  far  from  the  tree  I  Now 
I  understand  the  whole  craft  of  Satan.  You  build 
the  Lord  a  house  for  a  brothel  as  an  offering  to  a 
harlot!  You  play  wizard  and  magician  to  get 
people  to  fall  down  and  worship  the  denier.  But 
the  Lord  says:  'Blessed  are  they  that  do  His 
commandments,  that  they  may  have  right  to  the 
tree  of  life,  and  may  enter  in  through  the  gates 
into  the  city.  For  without  are  dogs,  and  sor- 
cerers, and  whoremongers,  and  murderers,  and 
idolators,  and  whosoever  loveth  and  maketh  a 
lie!'" 

The  last  words  he  had  thrown  out  with  an  in- 


2o8  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

credible  volubility  and  exaltation,  without  seeking 
for  them  elsewhere  than  on  his  lips,  and  just  as 
though  he  feared  a  crushing  answer  which  would 
weaken  their  impression,  he  turned  his  back  and 
went  down  to  his  boat. 

Meantime  the  mist  had  lifted,  and  the  sea 
spread  its  pure  blue  water  soothingly  and  acquit- 
tingly. 

The  commissioner  remained  awhile  in  his  rocky 
chair,  and  meditated  on  the  subjection  of  the  soul 
under  the  same  laws  that  govern  the  physical 
forces.  The  wind  tore  up  a  wave  down  on  Es- 
thonia;  that  wave  chased  another,  and  the  last 
which  transmitted  the  motion  to  the  Swedish 
coast,  removed  a  small  pebble,  which  had  afforded 
support  to  a  rock;  and  after  a  man's  age  the  re- 
sults would  be  shown  in  the  tumbling  down  of  the 
rock;  and  this  would  be  follov/ed  by  a  new  under- 
mining of  the  uncovered  rock  which  now  lay  ex- 
posed. 

His  brain  twenty-five  years  ago  had  thrown  out 
what  was  to  him  a  meaningless  word,  that  word 
had  penetrated  an  ear  and  put  a  brain  into  such 
a  strong  agitation  that  it  still  vibrated  after  having 
given  direction  to  the  whole  life  of  a  human  be- 
ing. And  who  knows.  If  this  innervation  cur- 
rent had  not  again  been  reenforced  by  contact  and 
friction,  so  that  it  once  more  with  invigorated 
force  would  unload  itself  and  bring  other  counter 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  209 

forces  Into  action,  producing  disturbances  and  de- 
struction in  the  lives  of  others ! 

Now  when  the  preacher's  boat  sped  into  sight 
round  the  point,  bearing  down  to  East  Skerry,  the 
commissioner  got  such  a  sure  feehng  that  there 
sat  a  foe  who  was  marching  down  to  his  forts, 
that  he  arose  and  went  to  his  boat,  to  go  home  and 
place  himself  on  the  defensive. 

•  •••••• 

When  he  was  well  seated  in  the  boat  and  calmed 
by  the  gentle  rocking  of  the  waves,  he  was  seized 
by  a  strong  desire  to  still  tarry  a  few  hours  on  the 
sea  in  perfect  solitude  and  let  the  last  disquieting 
impressions  blow  away. 

Why  should  he  even  fear  this  man's  influence 
on  his  betrothed,  as  she  would  still  show  herself 
unsuited  to  a  union  for  life,  if  she  sunk  back  to  a 
level  with  the  uneducated.  But  nevertheless  it 
grieved  him  that  there  existed  this  fear.  It  re- 
minded of  the  behavior  of  those  men,  who  were 
living  in  the  fear  of  losses  and  which  is  stamped 
with  the  name  jealousy.  Was  it  the  feeling  of  an 
inability  to  keep,  which  betrayed  a  frailness  in 
him?  Or  v/as  it  not  rather  a  frailness  in  her  not 
to  be  able  to  retain  a  hold,  when  the  balloon 
should  ascend,  leaving  the  sheet  anchor  religion, 
and  throwing  away  the  sacks  of  ballast,  the  feel- 
ings? Certainly  the  latter  would  have  been  the 
better  way,  notwithstanding  they  had  got  a  cer- 


2IO  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

tain  authority  with  those,  who  had  nothing  to  lose. 

He  now  tacked  and  lay  off  the  skerry  to  south- 
east, a  point  from  which  he  had  not  seen  his 
prison  before.  Highest  up  on  the  hill  he  saw  the 
skeleton  of  the  unfinished  chapel  with  its  staging, 
but  he  did  not  see  any  laborers,  although  the 
morning  was  far  advanced.  He  did  not  even  no- 
tice any  boats  out  fishing.  There  was  on  the 
whole  a  great  stillness  on  the  skerry,  and  no  peo- 
ple were  to  be  seen  even  by  the  custom  house  cot- 
tage or  the  pilots'  outlook.  He  turned  and  stood 
on  another  tack  to  sail  round  the  skerry.  But 
when  he  came  outside  of  the  same,  the  sea  be- 
came higher  and  he  gained  only  a  little  by  the 
tack,  so  it  took  a  whole  hour  before  he  could  scud 
down  to  the  harbor.  Now  he  saw  the  cottage 
where  the  ladies  lived,  and  as  soon  as  he  had  sped 
by  the  point  of  the  harbor,  he  observed  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  island  gathered  round  the  house, 
on  the  porch  of  which  the  preacher  stood  bare- 
headed, speaking. 

With  a  clear  insight,  that  here  impended  a  bat- 
tle, he  landed,  furled  the  sail  and  went  up  to  his 
chamber. 

Through  the  open  window  he  heard  the  people 
singing  a  hymn. 

He  would  have  liked  now  to  sit  down  to  his 
work,  but  the  thought  that  maybe  he  would  soon 
be  interrupted,  hindered  him  from  beginning  it. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  211 

A  painful  half  hour  passed  during  which  he 
learned  more  plainly  than  ever  before,  that  he 
did  not  own  himself  longer,  did  not  rule  over  two 
square  meters,  on  which  he  could  lock  himself  up 
to  avoid  the  touch  of  souls,  which  like  barnacles 
on  the  whale's  hide  fastened  themselves  there  to 
finally  by  their  mass  impede  his  motion. 

The  door  opened  now  after  a  short  knock,  and 
Miss  Mary  stood  before  him,  with  a  new  expres- 
sion in  her  face,  resembling  pained  reproach  and 
superior  compassion. 

She  came  besides  with  the  feeling  of  being 
backed  by  the  universal  opinion  of  the  people,  and 
therefore  felt  strong  against  this  solitary  man. 

He  let  her  speak  first  so  as  to  have  a  point  to 
start  from. 

"  Where  have  you  been?  "  commenced  she  with 
an  attempt  not  to  sound  too  arrogant. 

"  I  have  been  out  for  a  sail!  " 

"Without  inviting  me?" 

"  I  did  not  know  that  you  were  particular  about 
that!" 

"  Yes,  you  did  know  It,  but  surely  you  would 
be  alone  with  your  dark  thoughts!  " 

"Perhaps!" 

"  Certainly !  Don't  you  think  that  I  have  ob- 
served it?  Don't  you  believe  that  I  have  seen 
how  you  are  becoming  tired  of  me?  " 

"  Have  I  proved  tired  of  you,  I  who  follow  you 


212  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

day  in  and  day  out,  though  on  a  morning,  when 
you  usually  are  asleep,  I  took  the  liberty  to  sail 
for  a  couple  of  hours?  But  maybe  you  have  be- 
come tired  of  learning  to  fish,  for  I  have  not  seen 
you  once  out  at  sea." 

"  It  Is  not  the  time  to  fish  now  as  you  well 
know,"  answered  Miss  Mary  fully  persuaded  that 
she  spoke  the  truth. 

"  No,  I  see  that!  "  Interposed  the  commissioner 
with  the  purpose  of  approaching  the  very  mine, 
with  the  risk  of  an  explosion.  "  I  see  how  the 
people  abandon  their  work  to  listen  to  ser- 
mons .  .  ." 

Now  an  eruption  was  ready. 

"  Was  It  not  you,  who  wished  to  have  a  church 
out  here?  " 

"  Yes,  Sundays.  Six  days  shall  work  be  done, 
but  on  the  seventh  go  to  church.  Here  no  work  Is 
done  any  day,  but  there  Is  preaching  every  day. 
And  Instead  of  making  themselves  and  families  an 
honest  Income  here  on  this  earth,  they  all  race 
after  such  an  uncertain  thing  as  heaven.  The 
very  laborers  on  the  chapel  have  left  their  work, 
so  that  we  shall  never  see  a  roof  on  that  church, 
and  I  expect  every  moment  to  hear  that  poverty 
has  broken  out,  so  that  we  must  be  prepared  for 
charity  .  .  ." 

"  That  Is  just  what  I  was  going  to  speak  about," 
interrupted  Miss  Mary,  glad  to  have  avoided  tak- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  213 

ing  up  the  subject  herself,  still  overlooking  that 
It  was  exhausted  in  advance  by  the  commissioner. 

"I  have  not  come  here  to  exercise  charity;  I 
am  here  to  teach  the  people  how  to  get  along  with- 
out charity." 

"  You  are  at  the  bottom  a  heartless  person,  al- 
though you  appear  to  be  otherwise." 

"  And  you  would  show  your  big  heart  at  my  ex- 
pense without  being  willing  to  offer  a  yard  of  the 
trimming  from  your  gown." 

"  I  hate  you !  I  hate  you  !  "  burst  out  the  girl 
with  a  hideous  expression  on  her  face.  "  Surely 
I  know  who  you  are,  I  know  all,  all,  all !  " 

"Well,  why  not  leave  me  then?"  asked  the 
commissioner  in  a  steel  cold  tone. 

"  I  shall  leave  you !  I  shall  I  "  cried  she  and 
approached  the  door,  but  without  going. 

The  commissioner,  who  had  taken  a  seat  at  the 
table,  took  up  a  pen  and  began  to  write  to  avoid 
all  temptation  of  taking  up  a  conversation,  which 
was  ended,  as  everything  had  been  said. 

He  heard,  as  in  a  dream,  sobbing  and  how  the 
door  closed,  how  steps  sounded  in  the  hall,  and 
squeakings  of  the  stairs. 

When  he  awoke  and  read  the  paper,  over  which 
his  pen  had  been  flying,  he  saw  that  the  word  Pan- 
dora was  written  there  so  many  times,  that  he 
could  calculate  that  a  long  while  had  passed  since 
the  scene  was  ended. 


214  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

But  the  word  struck  him,  and  his  inqulsitlveness 
awoke  as  to  Its  meaning,  which  he  during  the  lapse 
of  years  had  forgotten,  although  he  had  a  faint 
memory  about  It  from  the  mythology.  He  took 
his  dictionary  from  the  table,  opened  It  and 
read: 

"  Pandora,  the  Eve  of  the  ancients,  the  earth's 
first  woman.  Sent  by  the  gods  for  revenge  on 
account  of  Prometheus  having  stolen  the  fire,  and 
given  It  to  human  beings,  with  all  Its  misfortunes, 
after  which  they  inhabltated  the  earth.  Repre- 
sented In  poesy  under  the  form  of  something  good, 
which  is  an  evil  Illusion,  a  creation.  Intended  for 
deceit  and  surprise." 

This  was  mythology  like  the  tale  of  Eve,  who 
debarred  human  beings  from  Paradise.  But  when 
the  tale  was  confirmed  from  century  to  century  and 
he  had  learned  himself,  how  the  presence  of  a 
woman  on  this  little  piece  of  earth  out  in  the  sea 
had  already  made  dusk,  where  he  would  spread 
light,  then  there  must  have  lain  an  idea  in  the 
Hellenic  and  Jewish  poet's  figurative  style. 

That  she  hated  him,  that  he  felt  and  knew,  as 
she  took  sides  with  the  low  crowd  down  there, 
but,  nevertheless  he  would  not  doubt  her  love, 
even  if  this  love  only  consisted  of  the  dandelion's 
attraction  to  the  sun  to  borrow  beams  of  light  for 
a  poor  imitation  of  the  yellow  disk.  But  there 
existed  besides  something  low  as  in  that  which  is 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  215^ 

base,  something  evil  with  the  desire  to  injure,  a 
battle  for  power,  which  was  out  of  place,  as  his 
aim  was  a  victory  over  the  irrational.  To  tell  her 
this,  yes,  that  would  be  to  break  the  relation  when 
this  depended  on  his  submission  or  at  least  his 
acknowledging  her  superiority,  and  this  would  be 
to  build  a  life  on  a  white  lie,  which  would  grow, 
wax  and  perhaps  smother  all  possibility  of  an 
honest  cohabitation.  Just  In  this  lay  the  deepest 
reason  of  all  the  relative  misfortunes  of  marriage, 
that  the  man  goes  into  the  union  sometimes  with 
a  willful  lie,  often  the  prey  of  an  hallucination, 
when  he  fancies  his  ego  into  the  being  whom  he 
would  assimulate.  Of  this  illusion;  second  sight, 
Mill  had  become  Infatuated  to  such  a  degree,  that 
he  believed  he  got  all  his  sharp  thoughts  from 
the  simple  woman  whom  he  had  lifted  up  to  him- 
self. 

It  was  love's  prize  from  time  immemorial,  that 
the  man  should  conceal  what  the  woman  was,  and 
on  this  secrecy  centuries  had  built  a  chaos  of  lies, 
which  science  did  not  dare  to  disturb,  which  the 
bravest  statesmen  did  not  dare  to  touch  and  which 
cause  the  theologian  to  deny  his  Paul,  when  It 
comes  to  "  women  In  the  churches." 

But  his  love  had  just  begun  and  taken  fire,  when 
he  saw  her  look  up  to  him  with  beseeching  glances; 
and  that  love  had  fled,  when  she  came  with  the 
vanquishing    smile     of    stupidity    after    having 


2i6  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

trampled  down  what  he  would  have  formed  for 
her  happiness  and  that  of  many  others. 

"  Ended!  "  said  he  to  himself,  arose  and  locked 
the  door. 

Ended  with  his  youthful  hopes  of  finding  the 
woman  he  sought.  "  That  woman,  who  was  born 
with  the  sense  to  see  her  sex's  inferiority  to  the 
other  sex." 

He  had  certainly  now  and  then  met  one  or 
another,  who  admitted  the  fact,  but  who  finally 
and  always  reserved  themselves  as  to  the  reason 
of  the  fact,  laying  the  blame  on  a  non-existing  op- 
pression, and  promising  themselves  that  with 
greater  liberty  they  would  soon  surpass  the  men; 
and  then  the  battle  was  in  full  sway. 

He  would  not  wear  out  his  intelligence  in  an  un- 
even fight  with  mosquitoes,  whom  he  could  not  hit 
with  a  cane,  because  they  were  too  small  and  too 
many,  therefore  there  must  now  be  an  end  forever 
to  this  fruitless  searching  after  the  non-existing. 
He  would  let  all  his  power  go  out  in  labor,  lay 
aside  kin,  family,  home  and  sexual  impulses  and 
leave  the  multiplying  to  other  "  reproductive 
animals." 

The  feeling  of  being  free  placed  his  soul  at  rest, 
and  it  seemed  to  him  as  though  a  pall  had  lost  its 
hold  in  his  brain,  which  began  to  operate  without 
concern.  The  thought  that  he  did  not  need  more 
to  make  his  exterior  agreeable,  caused  him  to  lay 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  217, 

aside  a  certain  kind  of  collar  which  annoyed  him, 
but  which  his  bethrothed  had  explained  to  be  chic. 
He  arranged  his  hair  in  a  more  comfortable  man- 
ner and  observed  how  it  calmed  his  nerves,  for  he 
had  been  in  constant  strife  about  the  coiffure  his 
betrothed  liked  best.  The  tobacco  pipe  which  he 
loved  as  an  old  acquaintance  and  which  he  had 
been  obliged  to  lay  aside,  was  taken  out  again, 
the  dressing  gown  and  moccasins,  that  he  had  not 
dared  to  use  for  a  long  time,  again  gave  freedom 
from  pressure,  which  reminded  of  a  more  airy 
medium  in  which  he  could  breathe  without  diffi- 
culty, and  think  without  restriction. 

And  now,  freed  from  all  these  accommodation 
constraints,  he  observed  what  tyranny  even  in  small 
details  he  had  lived  through.  He  could  walk  in 
his  room  without  the  fear  of  being  embarrassed 
by  a  knock  at  the  door,  deliver  himself  up  to  his 
thoughts  without  feeling  himself  false. 

He  had  not  long  enjoyed  the  newly  gained  lib- 
erty, when  somebody  rapped  at  the  door.  His 
body  jarred  as  though  some  mooring  still  held 
him,  and  when  he  heard  the  mother's  voice,  the 
oppressing  thought  struck  him  like  a  club,  that 
it  was  not  ended,  that  it  must  begin  over  again. 

His  first  intention  was  to  let  the  door  remain 
closed,  but  a  sense  of  propriety,  the  fear  of  being 
regarded  as  a  coward  determined  him  to  open  it. 
And  when  he  saw  the  old  lady's  cheerful,  prudent 


ai8'  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

eye,  as  she  with  a  kind  smile  and  a  roguish  shake 
of  her  head  stepped  in,  it  was  to  him  as  though 
the  last  half  hour's  scene  had  been  only  a  dream 
after  which  he  had  awakened  glad  that  it  was 
past. 

"  Have  we  now  squabbled  again?  "  commenced 
the  old  lady,  taking  away  the  disagreeableness  of 
the  remark  by  the  familiar  we.  "  You  must  get 
married,  children,  before  there  is  a  rupture! 
Believe  an  old  woman's  word;  and  don't  think 
that  you  test  your  hearts  as  engaged,  for  the  longer 
you  are  engaged,  the  worse  it  will  become!  " 

"  But  after  that  it  is  too  late  to  break  it,"  an- 
swered the  commissioner.  "  And  when  one  has 
already  discovered  such  a  difference  in  disposition 
and  opinions,  so  .  .  ." 

"What  are  these  opinions?  You  cannot  have 
different  opinions,  no,  though  the  girl  did  have  it 
lonesome  when  Axel  was  away,  and  therefore  she 
run  after  the  colporteur.  And  as  far  as  disposi- 
tion is  concerned,  it  comes  and  goes,  according  to 
the  condition  of  the  nerves.  And  Axel,  who  is 
such  a  knowing  man,  ought  to  know  how  women 
are!" 

He  could  have  kissed  her  hand  at  the  first  en- 
chantment of  finding  that  woman,  who  knew  her 
own  sex,  but  then  he  remembered  that  he  had 
heard  this  manner  of  speaking  ill  about  other 
women  each  time  a  woman  would  gain  him,  and 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  219 

that  it  was  more  of  flattery  than  an  admission,  for 
when  it  came  to  earnestness,  the  utterance  was  al- 
ways taken  back  with  interest.  Therefore  he  lim- 
ited himself  to  answering: 

"Let  time  pass,  little  mother!  Get  married 
out  here  I  cannot,  but  let  us  only  return  to  the  city 
in  the  fall  .  .  .  supposing  that  Mary  shows  more 
sympathy  in  my  work  and  less  repugnance  to  my 
way  of  seeing  the  world  and  living." 

"  Axel  is  so  dreadfully  profound,  and  if  a  poor 
girl  cannot  always  follow  it,  why  it  is  nothing  to 
be  astonished  at." 

"  Yes,  but  if  she  cannot  follow  me  upwards, 
I  cannot  on  the  other  hand  follow  her  downwards; 
but  the  latter  seems  to  be  her  precise  will,  so  pre- 
cise, that  it  appears  to  me  to-day,  as  though  there 
lay  a  hidden  hate  behind  it." 

"Hate?  It  is  only  love,  my  friend!  Come 
down  now  and  say  something  friendly,  and  she 
will  be  all  right  again," 

"  Never,  after  the  words  we  exchanged  to-day! 
For  either  these  words  mean  something  and  then 
we  are  foes,  or  they  mean  nothing,  and  then  one 
of  the  party  is  irresponsible." 

"  Yes,  she  is  irresponsible,  but  Axel  should  well 
know  that  a  woman  is  a  child  until  she  becomes  a 
mother.  Come  now,  my  friend,  and  play  with 
the  child,  otherwise  she  will  select  other  playthings, 
which  may  be  more  dangerous." 


220  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

*'  Yes,  but,  dearest,  I  cannot  play  the  whole  day 
without  being  tired,  and  I  do  not  believe  either 
that  Mary  is  pleased  to  be  treated  as  a  child." 

"  Yes,  she  is,  only  it  don't  look  so !  Ah,  what 
a  child  Axel  is  in  such  affairs !  " 

Again  a  politeness,  which  from  anyone  but  a 
mother-in-law  would  have  been  an  insult !  And 
when  she  now  took  his  hand  to  lead  him  out,  he 
felt  all  resistance  cease.  She  had  by  leaving  his 
argument  unanswered  led  the  conversation  away 
from  the  question;  she  had  blown  at  the  skein  in- 
stead of  untangling  it,  caressed  his  doubts  to  rest 
and  stroked  away  the  disquiet  and  by  her  womanly 
atmosphere,  her  motherly  manner  got  him  to  lay 
aside  his  will  and  personal  liberty. 

And  after  he  had  changed  his  coat,  he  followed 
obediently,  almost  with  pleasure  the  incessantly 
chatting  old  lady  down  the  staircase  to  continue 
the  play  and  put  on  handcuffs. 

Upon  reaching  the  hall  he  met  the  preacher,  who 
delivered  a  letter  to  him  with  the  Academy  o£ 
Agriculture's  stamp. 

The  commissioner  broke  the  seal  on  the  spot, 
and  put  the  letter  in  his  pocket,  as  though  glad 
he  had  got  something,  a  substitute  for  conversa- 
tion, a  lightning  rod;  he  burned  to  communicate 
the  news  to  the  mother  who  was  waiting. 

"  We  are  going  to  have  a  visitor,"  said  he. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  221 

"  The  officials  have  sent  me  a  young  man  who 
wants  to  learn  to  fish." 

"  So,  It  is  delightful  that  Axel  is  going  to  have 
some  man  for  company,"  said  the  mother  with  true 
sincerity. 

And  the  commissioner  went  with  light  steps 
'down  to  his  waiting  betrothed,  sure  that  with  a 
novelty  on  hand  he  could  immediately  pass  over 
the  most  disagreeable  of  explanations. 


CHAPTER  TENTH 

A  FEW  days  later,  the  commissioner  had  been 
out  sailing  alone  to  lay  down  salmon  trails  se- 
cretly, and  now  after  having  delayed  his  dinner 
hour  as  he  went  up  from  the  harbor,  he  heard 
chatting  and  laughter  from  the  porch  of  the  ladies' 
cottage.  Without  intending  to  listen  he  went 
thither,  and  when  he  reached  the  westerly  gable 
wall,  he  saw  through  the  two  windows  in  the  large 
chamber,  which  were  in  the  angle  of  the  cottage 
corner,  that  the  two  ladies  were  eating  dinner  on. 
the  porch  and  had  a  male  visitor  at  the  table.  He 
took  a  step  forwards  and  caught  sight  of  Miss 
Mary,  who  with  sparkling  eyes  raised  a  glass  of 
wine  to  pass  it  over  the  table  to  the  guest,  of 
whom  he  only  saw  a  pair  of  broad  shoulders. 
Suddenly  It  came  to  him,  that  he  had  seen  these 
movements  and  expressions  before  in  the  girl's 
eyes,  and  he  remembered  her  first  appearance  on 
the  islet,  when  she  treated  the  boatman  to  a  glass 
of  beer,  and  he  had  thought  she  coquetted  with 
the  churl!  But  now  he  was  astonished,  that  he 
had  never  seen  this  expression  in  her  eyes,  when 
she  looked  at  him.     Could  her  glances  only  have 

223 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  223 

reflected  his?  Or  did  she  always  hide  her  inner- 
most thoughts  from  him,  who  should  be  her  vic- 
tim? 

He  regarded  her  for  a  moment,  and  the  longer 
he  looked,  the  more  strange  seemed  the  expression 
In  the  girl's  face,  so  strange,  that  he  became  fright- 
ened, as  when  one  discovers  a  deceit  in  his  nearest 
related. 

When  one  can  see  so  much,  when  not  seen, 
what  then  shall  one  not  hear?  he  thought  and 
stopped  behind  the  corner  to  listen. 

The  mother  arose  now  and  went  Into  the  kit- 
chen, so  that  the  young  couple  were  left  alone. 

At  the  same  time  they  lowered  their  voices,  and 
'Miss  Mary's  glances  became  humid,  while  she  lis- 
tened to  the  stranger's  passionately  spoken  words. 

"  Jealousy  Is  the  dirtiest  of  all  vices,  and  in  love 
there  does  not  exist  any  right  of  ownership  .  .  ." 

"  Thanks  for  these  words !  A  thousand 
thanks!  "  said  Miss  Mary,  and  raised  her  glass, 
while  her  eyes  were  moist  with  some  half-shed 
tears.  "  You  are  a  real  man,  although  you  are 
young,  for  you  believe  In  woman." 

"  I  believe  In  woman  as  the  most  magnificent 
the  creation  has  brought  forth,  the  best  and  the 
truest,"  continued  the  young  man  with  rising  trans- 
port. "  And  I  believe  In  her,  because  I  believe 
in  God!" 

"  You  believe  In  God?  "  Miss  Mary  continued. 


,224  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

"  It  shows  that  you  are  also  intelligent,  for  It  is 
only  stupidity  that  denies  the  creator!" 

The  commissioner  considered  that  he  had  heard 
enough,  and  to  see  at  the  same  time  how  great 
the  power  of  dissimulation  his  chosen  friend  for 
life  could  possess,  he  stepped  forth  suddenly,  af- 
ter he  had  gained  control  of  all  his  facial  muscles 
and  assumed  a  beaming  expression,  as  though  he 
was  charmed  to  see  again  his  desired  one. 

The  girl  retained  the  expression  of  enchanted 
revery  In  her  face,  and  with  the  same  fire  as  the 
just  expressed  confession  of  faith  In  women  had 
produced  she  received  her  betrothed's  embrace 
and  returned  It  with  a  kiss,  more  burning  than  ever 
before. 

Thereafter  she  jokingly  introduced  Assistant 
Blom,  who  had  arrived  early  In  the  morning  and 
had  gained  all  hearts  on  the  skerry,  being  a  fisher- 
man unequaled  before. 

"  And  we  were  just  talking  about  the  herring 
off  Bohus,  when  you  came  and  disturbed  us!"  the 
girl  ended  the  presentation  with. 

The  commissioner  let  the  lie,  and  the  dangerous 
word  "  disturbed  "  and  the  challenge  "  all  hearts  " 
pass,  while  he  reached  his  hand  to  a  giant  youth 
of  about  twenty  and  some  years,  who  had  less 
ability  to  dissimulate,  and  with  a  guilty  look- 
grasped  the  outstretched  hand,  and  stuttered  a  few 
incomprehensible  words. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  225 

At  the  same  time  the  mother  came  out,  greeted 
her  future  son-in-law  and  began  to  arrange  the 
table. 

A  conversation  was  soon  started,  and  Miss 
Mary,  very  likely  in  the  feeling  of  having  a  sup- 
port, began  to  joke  at  her  betrothed's  toilet. 

"  That  veil  there,  is  precious  you  know,"  joked 
she;  "you  should  also  have  a  parasol  when  you 
are  sitting  at  the  helm." 

"  That  will  come,  that  will  come,"  answered 
the  commissioner,  hiding  the  disagreeable  impres- 
sion which  this  exposure  before  a  subordinate  and 
a  stranger  had  made  on  him. 

The  assistant,  who  already  felt  himself  above 
the  considerate  foreman,  but  still  could  not  help 
feeling  uncomfortable  at  the  cruel  treatment  he 
received,  was  seized  with  a  tactless  compassion, 
and  drumming  with  his  long  fingers  on  the  veil, 
which  the  commissioner  wore  on  his  hat,  he 
said : 

"  Yes,  but  this  here  Is  very  practical  I  "  And 
hastily  falling  again  Into  the  flirting  manner  he  had 
begun  at  the  first  moment,  he  added:  "And  If 
Miss  Mary  were  just  as  careful  of  her  beautiful 
complexion  .  .  ." 

"As  you  about  your  beautiful  hands — " 
slipped  from  the  girl,  while  she  touched  the  hand 
that  rested  on  the  table  and  which  was  rolling 
balls  from  bread;  and  she  seemed  at  once  to  be 


226  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

back  in  the  humor,  which  her  betrothed  could 
guess  had  prevailed  the  whole  forenoon. 

Feeling  himself  ridiculous  like  one  who  is  eat- 
ing alone  in  the  presence  of  those  who  are  satis- 
fied, he  needed  all  his  nerve  power  to  disguise  the 
depression  which  the  overheard  conversation  had 
produced.  "  They  already  compliment  each 
other's  members  in  my  presence,"  thought  he  with 
loathing.  But  perceived  at  once,  that  he  would 
be  lost  if  he  showed  a  single  sign  of  discontent 
over  the  improper  behavior,  which  discontent 
would  immediately  be  stamped  as  that  dirty  vice, 
he  had  lately  heard  spoken  of. 

"  The  assistant  has  indeed  an  unusually  beauti- 
ful hand  bespeaking  intelligence,"  said  he,  as  with 
the  mien  of  a  connoisseur  he  examined  the  object 
of  his  betrothed's  admiration. 

But  she,  who  did  not  wish  for  this  agreement 
with  her  views,  switched  aside  and  searched  for  a 
new  lash  for  his  supposed  stupidity. 

"  One  cannot  speak  of  intelligent  hands,"  she 
broke  out  with  a  laugh,  which  sounded  somewhat 
tipsy. 

"  Therefore  I  use  the  more  correct  expression 
of  bespeaking  intelligence  .  .  ." 

"  Oh,  you  philosopher !  "  scornfully  laughed  the 
girl.  "  You  dream,  so  that  you  do  not  see  that  we 
have  eaten  up  all  the  radishes  from  you." 

"  I  am  glad  that  the  traveler  has  a  relish,  and 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  227 

I  see  with  pleasure  that  you  have  forestalled  me  in 
caring  for  his  well  being,"  said  the  commissioner, 
unconstrainedly.  "  Permit  me  to  give  you  a  wel- 
come, Assistant  Blom,  and  wish  you  much  pleas- 
ure from  your  sojourn  here  in  the  sohtude.  And 
now  I  leave  you  In  Miss  Mary's  care,  she  can 
give  you  all  the  preliminary  explanations  about 
fishing  affairs;  meantime  I  go  up  and  rest  myself. 
Farewell,  my  dove,"  he  turned  to  the  girl;  "  now 
take  care  of  the  young  man  and  lead  him  in  the 
right  path.  Good  night,  mama,"  he  addressed  to 
the  widow  of  the  exchequer  officer  and  kissed  her 
hand. 

His  sortie  had  come  entirely  unexpected,  while 
its  adequate  motive  and  rounded  form,  leaving  no 
trace  of  ill  feeling,  had  saved  him  from  protests 
and  at  the  same  time  gave  him  the  last  word  and 
a  superiority  which  was  grudged  him. 

Upon  reaching  his  chamber,  he  had  only  time 
to  be  astonished  that  "  the  fear  of  loss  "  could 
bring  him  such  Incredible  ability  to  dissimulate, 
suppress  disagreeable  perceptions,  to  harden  him- 
self, before  he  was  lying  on  the  sofa  with  a  blan- 
ket over  his  head  and  sleeping  without  dreams. 
When  he  awoke  after  a  couple  of  hours,  he  arose 
with  a  resolve,  which  he  felt  that  he  would  hold 
fast  to  for  life,  to  free  himself  from  this 
woman. 


228  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

But  just  as  she  through  habit  had  eaten  her  way 
into  his  soul,  so  she  could  only  be  gnawed  out  the 
same  way  again,  and  the  vacant  place  that  he  would 
leave  in  her,  must  first  be  filled  by  another.  By 
him,  whose  soul  had  seemed  to  set  her  on  fire  at 
the  first  encounter. 

His  thoughts  were  interrupted  by  a  knock  at 
the  door. 

It  was  the  preacher,  who  with  many  excuses 
stepped  in  and  with  some  abashment  tried  to  grind 
out  what  he  had  to  say. 

"  Has  not  the  commissioner,"  began  he,  "  no- 
ticed anything  like  that  the  people  out  here  have 
less  conscience." 

"  That  I  observed  at  once,"  answered  the  com- 
missioner.    "  What  is  it  that  has  happened  now  ?  " 

"  Yer,  see  the  laborer  on  the  chapel  say,  they 
have  lost  boards,  so  that  there  Isn't  enough  to 
finish  it." 

"  This  does  not  surprise  me,  but  what  have  I 
to  do  with  that?" 

"  Yer,  see,  the  commissioner  was  for  it  and  pro- 
cured what  was  necessary  I" 

"  That  was  then !  Now  I  have  regretted  It, 
since  I  have  seen  that  your  preaching  has  taken  the 
people  from  their  work  and  Indirectly  made  them 
thieves." 

"  One  cannot  directly  say  .  .  ," 

"  No,  therefore  I  said  Indirectly  I     But  If  you 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  229 

want  money,  go  to  somebody  else.  Tell  me  one 
thing;  who  is  the  new  assistant  here?" 

"  Yer,  he  has  been  a  sea  cadet,  they  say,  you 
know,  and  now  he  would  learn  fishing  as  his  father 
is  rich,  they  say,  you  know." 

The  commissioner  had  placed  himself  at  the 
window,  when  the  conversation  commenced,  and 
witnessed  now  how  Miss  Mary  and  the  assistant 
were  playing  lawn  tennis.  He  had  even  seen  how 
her  gown  had  lifted  In  the  front  every  time  she 
leaned  backwards  to  serve  the  other's  ball.  Now 
he  saw  how  the  assistant  jokingly  bent  down  when 
the  skirt  drew  up,  just  as  though  by  gesture  and 
mien  to  indicate  that  he  saw  something. 

"  Listen  now,"  he  said,  "  I  have  long  thought 
that  It  would  be  of  great  service  for  the  people's 
best  economy,  if  there  was  a  provision  store,  so 
that  the  people  need  not  row  to  the  city  for  their 
purchases,  and  It  might  even  be  possible,  that  the 
merchant  could  advance  them  provisions,  and  sell 
their  fish.  What  does  Mr.  Olsson  say  about 
it?" 

The  preacher  stroked  his  long  chin  whiskers, 
while  his  face  expressed  a  mass  of  shifting  desires 
and  changes  of  mind. 

The  commissioner  now  saw  through  the  window, 
how  the  assistant  had  climbed  the  pole  of  the  look- 
out and  swung  horizontally  out  by  his  arms,  while 
Miss  Mary  clapped  her  hands  below  him. 


230  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

"  Yes,  say,  Mr.  Olsson,  if  one  could  get  a  pro- 
vision store  here,  it  would  only  do  good." 

"  But  see,  the  commonwealth  will  hardly  per- 
mit it,  unless  one  could  get  a  storekeeper  that  could 
be  rehed  on,  I  mean  a  person  who  ,  .  ." 

"  We  will  take  a  religious  man  and  let  a  share 
in  the  benefit  go  to  the  chapel  fund;  thus  we  get 
both  the  commonwealth  and  the  home  mission  on 
our  side." 

The  face  of  the  preacher  now  cleared  up. 

"  Yes,  in  such  a  way  it  may  work!  " 

"  Yes,  think  of  the  subject  and  try  to  get  a  suita- 
ble person,  who  will  not  fleece  the  people  nor 
wrong  the  church.  Think  of  it  awhile.  Now 
to  another  subject:  I  think  I  have  observed  that 
morality  stands  somewhat  low  here  on  the  skerry. 
Has  Mr.  Olsson  seen  or  suspected,  that  matters 
are  not  as  they  ought  to  be  down  at  Vestman's?  " 

"  Hm!  Yes,  they  say,  of  course,  that  there  Is 
something,  but  that  one  does  not  know!  And  I 
do  not  believe  that  one  need  to  mix  in  it !  " 

"  Do  you  say  that !  But  I  wonder,  if  one  ought 
not  to  interfere  In  time,  before  they  betray  them- 
selves, for  such  things  generally  end  ill  out 
here !  " 

The  preacher  did  not  seem  at  all  willing  to  stir  In 
the  case;  either  he  did  not  find  It  worth  talking 
about,  or  he  would  not  oflend  the  people.  Besides, 
his  sickly  looks  seemed  to  absorb  all  his  thoughts 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  231 

in  his  own  suffering,  so  that  he  with  a  thwart  turn 
took  up  his  real  errand. 

"  Yes,  and  so  I  should  like  to  ask  if  the  com- 
missioner had  something  to  give  me,  for  I  think 
I  have  got  the  fever  and  ague  out  here  in  the 
dampness." 

"Ague?     Let  me  see!" 

On  the  impulse  of  the  moment  and  without  for- 
getting for  an  instant,  that  it  was  a  foe  who  chal- 
lenged, the  commissioner  examined  the  patient's 
pulse,  looked  at  his  tongue  and  the  whites  of  his 
eyes  and  was  ready  with  his  prescription. 

"Have  you  poor  board  at  Oman's?" 

"  Yes,  it  is  wretched,"  answered  the  preacher. 

"  You  have  malnutrition  and  shall  have  food 
from  my  table.  Have  you  sworn  off  all  strong 
drinks?" 

"  Oh,  yes ;  however,  I  take  a  glass  of  beer  .  .  ." 

"  Yes,  here  you  have  a  preparation  of  china 
to  commence  with,  which  you  are  to  take  three 
times  a  day.     When  it  is  gone  let  me  know." 

Therewith  he  gave  him  a  bottle  of  china  bitters, 
after  which  he  took  the  preacher's  hand  and  said: 

"  You  shall  not  hate  me,  Mr.  Olsson,  for  we 
have  great  common  interests,  although  we  go  dif- 
ferent ways.  If  I  can  be  of  any  service  to  you, 
I  am  ready  whenever  you  wish  it." 

Such  a  simple  manner  as  a  little  plausible  good 
will  was  enough  to  pervert  the  sight  of  the  simple 


232  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

man,  so  that  he  believed  he  had  found  a  friend. 
With  sincere  feeling  he  reached  out  his  hand  and 
stammered: 

"  You  have  done  me  ill  once,  but  God  has  turned 
it  to  good,  and  now  I  say  thanks  for  everything 
and  beg  the  commissioner  not  to  forget  about  the 
provision  store  and  the  commonwealth." 

"I  shall  not  forget  that!"  finished  the  com- 
missioner and  made  a  gesture  for  him  to  go. 

After  having  collected  himself  for  a  moment  he 
went  down  on  the  hill  to  search  for  the  assistant, 
whom  he  found  engaged  in  a  fencing  exercise  with 
Miss  Mary,  whose  wrist  and  upper  arm  he 
took  great  pains  to  render  as  flexible  as  necessary 
for  a  nice  guard  position. 

The  commissioner  after  having  complimented 
them  begged  to  apologize  for  having  troubled 
them,  but  he  must  speak  with  the  assistant  about 
his  lodging. 

*'  There  does  not  exist  any  vacant  chamber  on 
the  whole  skerry  except  the  attic  room  over  the 
ladles'  rooms,"  said  he  with  a  daring,  as  though 
he  had  made  every  effort  to  find  another. 

"  No,  that  won't  do !  "  cried  Miss  Mary. 

"Why  not?"  argued  the  commissioner. 
"  What  is  the  obstacle?  There  is  only  that  room; 
in  case  Mr.  Blom  should  have  mine,  then  I  must 
live  in  the  same  hous-e  as  the  ladies,  and  that  would 
not  do  at  all." 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  233 

As  there  was  no  other  choice,  the  matter  was 
settled,  and  the  assistant's  baggage  was  carried 

up. 

"  Now  to  duty!  "  continued  the  commissioner, 
after  it  had  become  calm  again,  "  The  stromling 
have  come,  and  in  eight  days  the  fishing  will 
commence.  Therefore  the  assistant  must  at  once, 
preferably  to-night,  while  this  wind  continues,  go 
out  and  try  the  drifting  nets,  as  he  already  knows 
how." 

"  May  I  go  too?"  begged  Miss  Mary,  Imita- 
ting a  child's  squeaking  voice. 

"  Certainly  you  may  do  that,  my  angel,"  an- 
swered the  commissioner,  "  If  Mr.  Blom  has  noth- 
ing against  it.  But  you  must  excuse  me  that  I 
leave  you  alone  now,  for  I  must  write  reports  the 
whole  night.  At  one  o'clock  you  must  be  out. 
You  can  take  the  coffeepot  with  you." 

"  Oh,  won't  that  be  fun,  such  fun !  "  exulted  the 
girl,  who  seemed  to  have  become  ten  years 
younger. 

"  And  now  I  go  to  order  a  boat  equipped  and 
get  the  nets  ready.  Look  out  and  go  to  bed  early 
to-night,  so  that  you  will  not  oversleep." 

Therewith  he  went  away,  surprised  over  the  in- 
credulous surety,  with  which  he  forced  his  own 
will,  since  he  had  left  an  Impossible  defense  and 
gone  over  to  the  offensive. 


234  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

For  the  first  time  he  entered  the  cottage  of  the 
hostile  fisherman  Oman. 

He  noticed  at  once  that  there  was  a  coldness 
and  repugnance,  but  he  was  so  precise  in  his  ques- 
tions and  orders,  that  everything  bent  before  him. 
He  threw  in  some  kindly  questions  about  the  chil- 
dren; promised  that  there  would  soon  be  better 
times  on  the  skerry,  and  he  would  undertake  all 
the  risk  himself,  threw  in  a  word  about  the  pro- 
vision store,  and  reminded  the  people  to  keep 
barrels  and  salt  in  readiness,  and  if  they  had  not 
the  money  to  buy  with,  they  could  have  it  ad- 
vanced. He  left  as  a  friend  to  all  and  must  prom- 
ise at  once  to  send  down  some  strong  medicine 
to  the  father  who  had  taken  cold. 

Thereafter  he  went  down  to  the  boat  houses 
and  selected  nets  widi  strong  floats  and  strings. 
Examined  the  best  boat,  and  ordered  out  two  able 
boys. 

When  he  had  finished  the  preparatory  work,  the 
bell  rang  for  supper  in  the  ladies'  cottage. 

At  the  supper  table  he  spoke  with  the  mother, 
while  the  young  people,  as  he  now  called  them, 
were  devouring  each  other  with  their  eyes;  squab- 
bling and  pushing,  as  if  their  bodies  were  irresisti- 
bly attracted  towards  each  other. 

*'  Should  you  leave  the  two  alone  like  that?" 
whispered  the  mother  to  him,  when  he  had  said 
good  night  to  retire. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  235 

"  Why  not?  If  I  show  myself  dissatisfied,  then 
I  become  ridiculous,  and  if  I  do  not  show  dissatis- 
faction ..." 

"  So  you  will  be  still  more  ridiculous  I  " 
"Thus;  in  either  case.     It  Is  Immaterial  con- 
sequently   what    stand    I    take!     Good    night, 
mama !  " 


CHAPTER  ELEVENTH 

It  had  rained  for  eight  days  after  the  first  trial 
with  the  drifting  nets,  which  had  passed  without 
other  results  than  a  little  scene  between  the  en- 
gaged pair.  The  commissioner,  who  very  well 
knew  that  there  were  no  fish  to  get,  as  he  had  pur- 
posely led  the  young  folks  astray,  had  gone  down 
to  the  beach  to  receive  the  home-coming  fishers 
and  had  then  been  called  idiot  by  his  betrothed, 
who  was  entirely  worn  out  by  being  up  all  night. 
When  the  boatmen  snickered  at  this  secretly,  the 
commissioner,  who  feared  a  storm,  had  come  be- 
tween with  a  joke.  At  the  dinner  table  the  sport 
at  the  new  method  of  fishing  had  taken  wider 
range,  and  the  commissioner  had  played  deep 
humiliation  so  that  Mr.  Blom  had  several  times 
regarded  it  his  duty  to  defend  him  m  a  manner 
extremely  wounding. 

The  rainy  days  following  this  had  kept  the  com- 
pany in  doors,  whereby  an  extremely  intimate  in- 
tercourse had  formed  down  in  the  ladies'  cottage, 
where  the  assistant  had  introduced  the  habit  of 
reading  aloud  from  the  Swedish  poets.     The  com- 

236 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  237 

missioner  had  at  the  beginning  listened  to  it,  but 
finally  left  with  the  explanation  that  Swedish  poesy 
was  written  for  confirmation  classes  and  ladies  and 
that  he  would  wait,  until  there  came  a  poet,  who 
would  write  for  men.  He  had  then  by  common 
vote  been  declared  unpoetical,  at  which  he  was  sat- 
isfied, as  it  relieved  him  from  the  duty  of  being 
present  at  the  seances. 

The  rainy  weather  had  caused  even  the  work  on 
the  chapel  to  stop,  and  the  laborers  were  sitting  in 
the  cottages  and  furnishing  the  gin  to  what  coffee 
they  could  get. 

The  colporteur,  who  could  not  gather  the  people 
out  on  the  slope,  passed  the  first  days  in  the  kitchen 
and  would  have  read  out  of  the  Bible,  but  was  re- 
ceived with  indifference  and  fell  into  dispute  with 
the  laborers,  who  were  mostly  free  thinkers. 
Whereupon  he  had  withdrawn  to  his  chamber,  ex- 
plaining that  he  was  sick  and  he  sent  to  the  com- 
missioner for  the  china  preparation,  as  his  bottle 
was  emptied.  Suddenly  he  had  disappeared  and 
it  was  said  that  he  had  gone  with  a  steamer  to  the 
city. 

He  had  now  returned,  the  evening  before,  to 
the  skerry,  accompanied  by  a  man,  whom  he  called 
his  brother  and  who  brought  a  boat  load  of  divers 
articles,  mostly  beer,  which  was  packed  up  in  a 
boat  house,  in  the  open  door  of  which  a  plank  on 
two  barrels  served  as  a  counter,  as  the  common- 


238  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

wealth  had  permitted  the  opening  of  a  provision 
store. 

During  the  past  few  days  fishing  folks  had  com- 
menced to  gather  from  the  islands  near  the  main- 
land. And  now  the  boat  houses  were  opened 
where  whole  families  were  harbored,  the  cottages 
were  filled  with  relations  and  acquaintances, 
and  on  the  whole  skerry  there  was  a  life, 
which  strangely  contrasted  with  the  usual  sol- 
itude. 

As  the  skerry  and  the  fishing  waters  belonged  to 
a  private  individual  in  on  the  mainland,  every  boat 
paid  a  certain  duty  which  was  collected  by  an  over- 
seer who  was  sent  here.  With  this  overseer  the 
commissioner  had  at  once  got  on  a  bad  footing, 
when  he  would  speak  about  fishing  with  drifting 
nets,  which  would  be  followed  by  the  abandoning 
of  the  shoals,  and  thereby  the  water  tax  would 
cease.  But  even  this  apparently  unfavorable  cir- 
cumstance he  had  known  how  to  turn  to  his  bene- 
fit; for  the  overseer,  when  opposing  the  new 
method,  was  urged  to  propagate  the  old  system 
by  means  of  gin  and  would  thereby  against  his 
will  form  the  dark  background,  against  which  the 
effects  of  fishing  with  drifting  nets  would  stand 
out  in  bolder  magnificence.  And  the  commis- 
sioner was  perfectly  sure  of  his  victory,  as  night 
and  day  he  had  been  sampling  the  water,  dredging, 
fishing,  and  with  his  water  telescope  Investigating 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  239 

the  depths  to  find  out  where  the  shoals  of  fish  were 
moving. 

All  these  details,  however,  had  no  other  interest 
to  him,  than  that  they  served  to  exercise  his  energy 
for  coming  battles,  to  restore  in  him  that  feeling 
of  power,  without  which  nobody  can  endure,  who 
has  unusual  abilities,  which  are  easily  lost,  unless 
used. 

And  during  the  time,  which  had  passed  since  the 
arrival  of  the  assistant,  the  daily  hectoring  from 
the  side  of  the  young  folks  had  by  and  by  accus- 
tomed him  to  the  role  of  an  Inferior,  so  that  he  was 
on  the  way  to  live  this  role  himself,  especially 
as  he  himself  did  not  wish  to  break  the  engage- 
ment but  found  it  necessary  to  cause  the  break 
to  be  made  by  her.  Between  the  two  young  peo- 
ple there  existed  a  complete  sympathy  on  all  sub- 
jects, and  he  had  witnessed  how  the  ripe  woman 
was  at  once  on  a  level  with  the  unripe  man,  all 
of  whose  immature  thoughts,  all  improvised  no- 
tions she  accepted  as  the  height  of  wisdom.  And 
each  of  his  attempts  to  refute  a  stupidity  stranded 
against  their  inability  to  keep  together  the  threads 
of  a  discourse,  because  they  were  thinking  ex- 
clusively under  the  influence  of  the  desire  to  own 
each  other.  To  take  up  some  competition  in  ac- 
robatic dexterity  or  praise  of  the  lower  sex  he 
would  not,  for  it  was  his  exact  purpose  to  be 
erased  and  make  a  capital  end  to  the  tie,  which 


240  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

threatened  his  whole  future  existence.  And  this 
biandri,  in  which  he  was  living,  when  he,  for  an 
occasional  moment  alone  with  his  betrothed,  only 
received  reflexes  from  the  other  man,  felt,  as  it 
were,  his  spirit  on  her  lips,  heard  his  childishness 
reechoed  from  her  mouth,  all  this  had  ended  in 
giving  him  loathing  for  a  state,  which  reminded 
of  a  menage  a  trois. 

The  young  man's  conceit  had  no  limit,  and  he 
had  fallen  into  the  ridiculous  idea  that  he  was  su- 
perior to  the  commissioner,  because  he  was  al 
pari  with  Miss  Mary,  who  also  gave  the  illusion 
of  being  above  the  commissioner;  according  to 
the  perfectly  correct  formula :  if  A  is  greater  than 
B,  and  C  is  equal  to  A,  then  C  is  also  greater  than 
B, —  without,  however,  first  examining  whether 
A  really  was  greater  than  B. 

He  had  never  before  expected  to  find  youth's 
secret  so  openly  exposed  as  he  got  it  here  gratui- 
tously presented  on  a  waiter,  and  how  well  he 
recognized  himself  from  a  past  stage. 

How  had  he  not  cried  of  hunger  and  rut?  Ex- 
perienced Weltschmerz  of  envy  for  elders,  who 
had  already  gained  what  he  was  struggling  for 
and  who  then  made  him  feel  dejected,  whereby 
also  his  sympathy  for  all  oppressed  and  small  had 
been  aroused.  This  inability  to  judge  one's  pow- 
ers, based  on  anticipation  of  that,  which  it  would 
be   possible   to   accomplish   in   this   long  life,   if 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  241 

thought  of  as  concentrated  In  a  single  act!  All 
this  sentimentality,  caused  only  by  unsatisfied  de- 
sires. This  over-estimating  of  woman,  while 
memories  from  the  nursery  and  of  the  mother 
were  still  fresh.  These  lax  half-thoughts  of  the 
still  soft  brain  under  pressure  from  blood  vessels 
and  testicles. 

He  even  recognized  these  faint  signs  of  good 
sense,  which  under  the  form  of  primitive,  animal 
slyness  and  discrimination  of  means  so  often  be- 
lieved themselves  to  be  the  highest  prudence,  but 
were  only  the  fox's  simple  attempt  to  be  shrewd, 
and  which  therefore  wonderfully  resembled  the 
reputed  women's  artifice,  priest  shrewdness,  and 
lawyers'  trickery. 

The  young  man  had  even  tried  mind  reading 
on  the  commissioner,  thereby  betraying  that  he 
suspected  the  latter  of  carrying  some  dangerous 
secrets  as  he  was  unlike  other  beings.  But  in  this 
he  had  acted  so  clumsily,  that  the  commissioner 
had  found  out  all  that  was  thought  and  said  about 
him  by  the  ladies;  instead  of  giving  any  informa- 
tion he  had  by  his  answers  so  mystified  the  young 
man,  that  he  began  to  doubt  whether  his  rival  was 
a  blockhead  or  of  a  demoniac  nature.  By  de- 
moniac he  meant  a  conscious  person,  who  under 
pretext  of  the  greatest  naivete  acted  with  full  cal- 
culation, always  awake  and  leading  the  fates  of 
other  beings  according  to  his  plans.     And  as  the 


242  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

idea  of  calculation,  which  was  a  virtue,  always 
had  a  bad  significance  to  the  young,  who  could 
not  calculate  the  consequences  of  an  act,  so  his 
envy  assumed  the  inferior's  passionate  desire  to 
tear  down  and  trample  under  the  feet. 

Thus  matters  stood,  when  the  great  day  came 
that  was  to  decide  the  fishermen's  whole  existence 
for  the  coming  winter. 

The  August  evening  was  hanging  bed  warm 
over  the  skerry,  all  of  whose  cliffs  and  stones  were 
still  warm  after  the  sun  had  gone  down,  so  warm, 
that  the  dew  could  not  fall  on  them.  The  sea 
outside  spread  itself  smooth  and  lavender  gray 
where  the  full  moon  copper  red  slowly  emerged 
and  was  just  now  half  hidden  by  a  brig,  which 
seemed  to  sail  right  on  the  satellite's  mare 
serenitatis.  Nearer  the  strand  were  seen  all  the 
floats  of  the  laid  out  nets  lying  in  rows  like  flocks 
of  sea  birds  floating  on  the  swell. 

And  while  the  people  were  awaiting  the  break 
of  day  to  look  at  the  nets,  they  had  camped  on 
the  strands  around  campfires  with  coffeepots  and 
gin  bottles;  In  the  boat  house,  where  the  pro- 
vision dealer  was  selling  beer,  the  preacher  had 
taken  place  beside  his  brother  to  assist  him  with 
the  lively  traffic,  and  with  a  blue  apron  round  his 
hips  he  was  seen  opening  beer  bottles  like  an  old 
expert  saloon  keeper. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  243 

The  commissioner,  who  had  come  out  to  ob- 
serve the  direction  of  the  currents,  the  tempera- 
ture and  barometric  pressure,  now  wandered  on 
the  sandy  beach  to  rest  from  his  thoughts.  Here 
and  there  he  surprised  a  couple,  who  had  sought 
solitude.  Their  unintelligible  naivete  In  be- 
havior made  him  only  turn  his  back  on  them  with 
a  sneer  and  loathing.  Coming  further  out  on  the 
point,  he  climbed  out  on  the  cliffs  to  find  his  seat, 
where  he  used  to  meditate.  It  was  one  of  the 
arm  chairs  which  had  been  perfectly  polished  by 
the  waves,  and  was  still  warm  as  a  stove  from  the 
burning  sun  of  the  day. 

He  had  been  sitting  a  moment  half  asleep 
lulled  by  the  sighing  of  the  surf,  when  he  heard 
the  sand  creak  below  on  the  edge  of  the  beach. 
There  was  a  rustle  in  the  dry  wrack,  and  he  saw 
the  assistant  and  his  betrothed  coming  slowly 
walking  with  their  arms  around  each  other's 
waist.  They  halted  between  the  Invisible  be- 
holder and  the  moonlight's  street  on  the  water, 
so  that  he  could  see  their  figures  outlined  as 
sharply,  as  though  he  had  had  them  between  the 
objective  of  a  microscope  and  the  reflecting  mir- 
ror. And  he  saw  now  with  antipathy's  sharp- 
ened glance  her  profile  like  that  of  a  bird  of  prey 
leaning  towards  the  other's  big  ape's  head  with 
the  enormous  cheeks,  useless  to  all  but  buglers, 
and  the  narrow  tapering  skull  without  a  forehead. 


244  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

He  observed  now  the  superfluous  mass  of  flesh  in 
the  man's  figure,  whose  ignoble  outlines  with  too 
large  hips  reminded  of  a  woman  like  the  Farnesian 
Hercules.  A  manly  ideal  of  the  period  of  the 
semi-brutes,  when  the  fist  still  ruled  over  the  big 
brain,  which  was  not  completed. 

Disgraced,  as  though  he  had  been  engaged  to 
a  centaur,  he  felt  that  his  soul  through  marriage 
with  a  retrogressive  type,  was  standing  before  the 
beginning  of  a  crime,  which,  completed,  would 
falsify  his  lineage  for  all  time  to  come,  which 
should  allure  him  to  offer  his  only  life  for  an- 
other's child,  on  which  he  should  squander  his 
best  feelings  and,  after  a  time  grown  fast  to  it, 
drag  his  humiliation  as  a  block  about  his  feet 
unable  to  free  himself.  Jealousy  "  this  dirty 
vice,"  what  else  is  it  than  the  healthy,  strong  fear 
of  the  tribal  instinct  lest  it  should  be  hindered  in 
Its  praiseworthy  egotism  to  perpetuate  the  best 
in  the  individual?  And  who  lacks  in  this  sound 
passion  but  the  sterile  family  sustainer,  the  wife 
panderer,  the  weak  fool,  the  cicisbeo,  the  gyn- 
ecolater,  who  believes  in  platonic  love? 

He  was  jealous,  but  when  the  first  anger  over 
the  affront  had  subsided,  there  awoke  an  unre- 
strained desire  to  possess  this  woman  without 
wedlock.  The  gauntlet  was  thrown,  the  liberty 
in  choice  was  proclaimed,  and  he  felt  a  desire  to 
take  up  the  battle,  break  the  band  and  appear  as 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  245 

the  lover  In  order  that  he  with  gained  victory 
should  be  able  to  go  calmly  onwards,  conscious 
that  he  was  not  the  one  who  had  been  neglected 
by  nature,  who  had  been  pushed  aside  in  the  bat- 
tle of  love.  Here  was  no  longer  a  question  of 
honest  contest  with  loyal  means,  it  was  an  insidi- 
ous battle  between  burglars.  The  challenger  had 
selected  the  simple  weapon,  skeleton  keys,  and  the 
combat  was  about  stealing!  With  a  woman  as 
the  prize  all  hesitation  disappeared.  The  animal 
had  awakened,  and  the  wild  instincts,  which  hid 
themselves  under  the  great  name  of  love,  were  as 
furious  as  the  powers  of  nature  let  loose. 

He  arose  from  the  rock  unobserved  and  turned 
his  steps  homewards  to  arrange  his  fate,  as  he 
called  it. 


CHAPTER  TWELFTH 

There  was  a  gloomy  silence  on  the  skerry 
about  seven  o'clock  the  next  morning,  for  the  fish- 
ing on  the  shoals  had  been  a  failure  on  account 
of  the  reasons  stated  by  the  commissioner.  The 
fishermen  were  sitting  dejectedly  in  their  boats 
and  straightening  out  their  nets,  and  now  and  then 
picking  out  a  solitary  stromling,  which  was  thrown 
on  shore. 

The  traffic  at  the  provision  store  had  become 
less  with  the  sinking  credit,  and  the  preacher  had 
laid  aside  his  blue  apron  and  with  book  in  hand 
had  gathered  a  little  group  of  despairing  women 
around  him  in  a  cottage.  With  an  incomprehen- 
sible, but  not  unusual,  logic  among  his  class  he 
spoke  of  how  Jesus  fed  five  thousand  men  with 
five  loaves  and  two  fishes.  There  was  an  approx- 
imate a  propos  for  so  far  as  this  case  was  con- 
cerned there  were  many  mouths  and  few  fishes, 
but  how  these  few  fishes  could  fill  so  many,  that 
he  could  not  indicate.  Now  that  there  was  no 
help,  he  must  try  and  explain,  why  the  miracle 
could  not  be  done  again,  and  he  found  the  reason 
in  the  prevailing  unbelief.     If  they  only  had  faith 

246 


ON  THE  SEx^BOARD  247 

as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  the  miracle  would  be 
repeated.  And  faith  could  only  be  gained  by 
prayer. 

Therefore  he  exhorted  the  community  to  pray. 

Although  none  of  those  present  believed  in  the 
miracle  of  the  two  fishes,  while  the  most  of  them 
had  never  heard  of  it,  because  they  had  not  read 
that  story,  they  followed  the  example  and  re- 
peated the  Lord's  Prayer,  which  they  had  learned 
passably  for  the  first  holy  communion. 

But  when  they  v/ere  half  through,  they  were 
suddenly  disturbed  by  a  noise  from  the  harbor. 
Those  who  were  sitting  nearest  the  window  now 
saw  a  fishing  boat,  which  had  just  furled  its  main- 
sail, and  come  up  to  the  pier.  In  the  bow  stood 
Miss  Mary  with  fluttering  hair  beneath  the  blue 
Scotch  cap,  and  at  the  tiller  sat  the  assistant  wav- 
ing his  hat  as  a  sign  of  success.  The  boat  was 
overloaded  with  nets,  through  the  dark  meshes 
of  which  glittered  fish  upon  fish. 

"  Come  here,  you  shall  have  stromling,"  cried 
the  girl  with  the  conqueror's  munificence. 

"  If  I  am  only  permitted  to  measure  them  first, 
the  people  shall  have  them,"  interposed  the  com- 
missioner, who  from  his  window  had  observed  the 
return  of  the  boat  and  had  therefore  come  down 
to  see  the  result  of  his  labors. 

"What  good  will  that  do?"  said  Miss  Mary 
over-bearingly. 


248  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

"  It  Is  for  the  statistics,  my  gracious  lady,"  an- 
swered the  commissioner  with  no  sign  of  discom- 
posure, for  he  knew  that  the  result  of  the  fishing 
had  depended  upon  the  information  he  had  given, 
founded  on  current,  depth,  temperature  of  the . 
water  and  the  condition  of  the  bottom. 

"  You  with  your  statistics,"  joked  Miss  Mary 
with  an  expression  of  deepest  disgust. 

"  Take  It,  then,  but  only  let  me  know  after- 
wards how  much  there  was,"  the  commissioner 
finished  the  discussion  with  and  went  home. 

"  He  is  envious  of  us,"  remarked  Miss  Mary 
to  the  assistant. 

"Perhaps  jealous?"  said  he. 

"  That  he  surely  cannot  be,"  replied  the  girl 
half  aloud  as  to  herself,  thereby  betraying  that 
which  she  had  hidden  for  several  days,  namely 
her  being  provoked  at  her  betrothed's  Incredible 
indifference  towards  his  rival  which  she  had  taken 
as  an  offending  over-confidence  In  his  power  to 
charm. 

The  prayer  meeting  had  been  broken  up,  and 
all  the  islanders  gathered  around  the  returned  fish- 
ing boat. 

"  Yes,  see  Miss  Mary,  you  are  a  perfect  man !  " 
flatteringly  said  the  preacher,  getting  the  chance 
of  sowing  a  little  seed  of  variance  as  he  believed. 

"  A  sitting  crow  gets  nothing,"  joked  the  cus- 
tom house  surveyor. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  249 

"  One  who  lies  on  his  sofa,  he  means,"  whis- 
pered the  assistant  to  Miss  Mary. 

The  girl  swelled  at  the  praise,  and  distributed 
the  fish  with  full  hands  to  those  who  stood  on  the 
pier,  who  never  tired  of  breaking  forth  in  praise 
and  blessings  over  the  angel  rescuer. 

But  it  was  not  gratitude  for  benevolence  re- 
ceived, which  called  forth  this  beautiful  emotion. 
It  was  a  hearty  desire  to  evade  confessing  them- 
selves wrong  towards  the  commissioner,  whose 
way  of  fishing  they  had  joked  about.  It  was  the 
reverse  side  of  a  hatred  towards  their  real  bene- 
factor, for  whom  they  would  not  bow  in  gratitude. 

When  the  fish  was  taken  from  the  nets  and 
distributed  between  the  poorest,  there  proved  to 
be  ten  barrels,  which  were  at  once  bought  by  the 
provision  dealer  and  salted  down.  The  money 
was  transferred  at  once  into  coffee,  sugar  and 
beer.  For  they  felt  sure  they  could  take  their 
own  stromling  for  the  winter  out  of  the  sea,  since 
Miss  Mary  had  given  them  all  the  information 
regarding  the  new  way  of  fishing  with  drifting 
nets. 

•  «  •  •  •  •  • 

When  the  commissioner  reached  his  room,  he 
found  a  letter,  which  had  been  brought  by  a  coast 
guardsman  returning  home.  It  contained  an  In- 
vitation for  the  commissioner  and  his  betrothed 
to  honor  the  ball  of  the  officers  on  board  the 


250  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

corvette  Loke,  whIcK  would  anchor  beside  the 
skerry  at  eight  o'clock  of  the  same  day. 

He  saw  at  once  that  the  moment  had  come  in 
which  to  make  an  end  to  the  engagement,  for  now 
to  take  the  mistress  of  another  into  society  and 
introduce  her  as  his  future  wife,  naturally  he 
would  not.  Therefore  he  pulled  off  his  engage- 
ment ring,  and  put  it  in  a  letter,  which  he  had 
composed  the  night  before  to  the  widow  of  the 
exchequer  officer,  and  in  which  he  with  the  strong- 
est expressions  of  despair  regretted  that  his  en- 
gagement with  Miss  Mary  must  come  to  an  end, 
because  of  a  former  liaison,  which  he  had  reck- 
lessly entered  into  with  a  woman,  who  had  borne 
him  children,  and  who  now  appeared  with  a  law- 
ful claim  which,  if  it  could  not  compel  him  into  a 
marriage  with  the  plaintiff,  still  had  the  power  to 
prevent  his  union  with  another.  As  a  gentleman, 
but  without  intending  to  offend,  he  explained  that 
he  was  prepared  to  assist  the  innocently  injured 
girl  who  was  perhaps  placed  in  distress,  both  as 
far  as  the  saving  of  her  honor  and  her  subsistence 
were  concerned. 

This  fiction  he  had  found  to  be  the  only  possible 
way  to  make  a  final  ending,  as  it  protected  the 
honor  of  both  parties,  but  mostly  that  of  the  girl, 
and  must  be  irrevocable  without  the  hope  of 
reparation,  being  an  inevitable  fate. 

When  he  had  sealed  the  letter,  he  whistled  to 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  251 

his  orderly,  and  gave  it  to  him  telling  him  to  carry 
it  to  the  widow  of  the  ofBcer  of  the  exchequer. 

Thereafter  he  lighted  a  cigarette  and  placed 
himself  at  the  window  to  see  how  the  shot  would 
strike.  On  the  porch  stood  the  old  lady  shaking 
a  mat,  when  the  man  stopped  to  deliver  the  letter. 
She  received  it  with  some  astonishment,  which  in- 
creased, when  she  with  her  left  hand  squeezed  the 
envelope  to  feel  what  it  contained.  Thereupon 
she  turned  round  and  went  into  the  cottage. 

A  moment  thereafter  Miss  Mary's  figure  was 
seen  to  move  to  and  fro  behind  the  lace  curtains 
In  the  dining  room.  She  seemed  to  walk  ve- 
hemently backwards  and  forwards,  sometimes 
stopping  and  gesticulating  with  her  arms,  as 
though  she  would  defend  herself  against  re- 
proaches, which  were  thrown  at  her. 

This  lasted  about  an  hour,  after  which  she  was 
seen  out  on  the  porch,  throwing  a  revengeful 
glance  up  towards  the  commissioner's  window. 
After  which  she  beckoned  to  the  assistant,  who 
was  coming  from  the  harbor. 

When  they  had  both  gone  into  the  cottage  and 
been  invisible  for  half  an  hour,  they  appeared 
again  and  went  Into  the  woodshed,  from  whence 
they  brought  out  a  trunk  and  a  knapsack. 

So,  they  had  considered  It,  and  found  that  to 
tarry  on  the  skerry  longer  was  Impossible. 

After  a  moment  the  assistant  again  appeared, 


252  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

this  time  carrying  with  him  his  own  trunk,  which 
the  commissioner  recognized  by  its  trimmings  of 
brass. 

Thus  he  also  Intended  to  go. 

Soon  the  owners  of  the  cottage  appeared  with 
servants,  and  the  whole  house  seemed  to  be  turned 
upside  down. 

Towards  noon,  after  the  commissioner  had 
passed  away  the  time  with  reading,  he  saw  the 
assistant  and  Miss  Mary  step  out  onto  the  porch, 
and  engage  In  a  lively  conversation,  which  became 
more  so  and  was  followed  by  gestures,  indicating 
a  controversy. 

"  They  must  know  each  other  pretty  well,  as 
they  are  quarreling  already,"  thought  the  com- 
missioner. 

In  the  afternoon  the  old  lady  and  the  assistant 
were  on  the  pilot's  boat  being  taken  out  to  an 
inward  bound  steamer.  Why  Miss  Mary  stayed, 
he  could  not  understand  clearly.  Perhaps  with 
the  hope  of  a  renewal,  perhaps  with  a  desire  to 
show  her  spite  or  may  be  something  else. 

However,  she  placed  herself  at  the  window,  so 
that  she  could  be  seen  from  the  custom  house  cot- 
tage. And  there  she  sat  most  of  the  time,  some- 
times drumming  on  the  window  pane,  sometimes 
reading  a  book  and  now  and  then  raising  her 
handkerchief  to  her  face. 

About  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening  the  corvette 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  253 

was  seen  stealing  from  Landsort's  passage  and 
going  to  anchor  at  once  between  Norsten  and 
East  Skerries.  When  it  signaled  with  the  steam 
whistle  for  pilots,  the  girl  arose  and  came  out 
to  see  what  was  going  on;  and  as  she  now  stood 
on  the  slope,  regarding  the  fine  vessel,  which  was 
adorned  for  a  feast  with  flags  on  all  stays  and 
with  colored  awnings  amidships,  the  commissioner 
could  see  how  she  became  fascinated  by  the  allur- 
ing sight.  She  stood  with  her  hands  behind  her 
back  in  an  unbecoming  attitude,  until  the  wind 
brought  to  the  skerry  the  tunes  of  a  festival  march, 
when  her  feet  began  to  move  on  the  spot. 
Slowly  the  slender  body  bent  forwards,  as  if  it 
was  attracted  by  the  tones  of  music,  and  then,  at 
once,  the  whole  figure  collapsed,  the  hands  cov- 
ered the  face  and  the  girl  rushed  precipitately 
into  the  cottage,  in  despair  like  a  child,  who  had 
lost  an  expected  pleasure. 

The  commissioner  now  dressed  for  the  ball;  on 
the  black  dress  coat  with  the  doctor's  Insignia  em- 
broidered in  black  silk  on  the  velvet  collar,  he 
hung  his  six  decorations  of  knighthood  on  a  chain 
and  put  on  his  bracelet,  which  he  had  not  worn 
since  the  day  of  his  engagement. 

When  he  had  finished  his  toilet  and  had  still 
an  hour  left,  before  the  boat  would  come  for  him, 
he  decided  to  make  a  farewell  visit  to  Miss  Mary, 
mostly  because  he  would  not  be  suspected  of  cow- 


254  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

ardlce,  but  also  because  he  was  longing  to  test  his 
power  over  his  own  feelings.  As  he  came  into 
the  hall  he  made  a  noise  to  give  the  girl  time  to 
pose  in  order  that  he  from  this  pose  might  learn 
the  reason  of  her  stay  and  what  her  intentions 
were. 

After  knocking  he  entered  and  found  Miss 
Mary  sitting  with  sewing  work,  something  he  had 
never  seen  in  her  hands  before.  Her  face  ex- 
pressed humiliation,  regret  and  submission,  al- 
though with  an  effort  to  look  indifferent  and  aris- 
tocratic. 

"  Will  you  see  me,  Miss  Mary,  or  shall  I  go?  " 
commenced  the  commissioner.  And  he  felt  again 
the  inexplicable  desire  to  lift  her  above  himself  as 
a  woman,  when  she  appeared  with  a  woman's  at- 
tributes and  leaned  towards  him,  just  as  he  other- 
wise felt  an  Irresistible  desire  to  push  her  down, 
when  she  came  with  manly  pretensions  and  man- 
ners. At  this  moment  she  seemed  more  beautiful 
to  him  than  he  had  seen  her  for  a  long  time,  so 
that  he  gave  way  to  his  feelings,  and  without  mak- 
ing resistance  he  became  approachable. 

"  I  have  caused  you  grief,  Miss  Mary  .  .  ." 

When  she  heard  the  softness  in  his  voice  she 
at  once  straightened  up  and  snapped: 

"  But  you  were  too  cowardly  to  come  and  tell 
me,  yourself." 

*'  Considerate,  Miss  Mary !     It  Is  not  so  easy 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  255 

for  me  as  it  Is  for  you  to  slap  people's  faces.  And 
you  see  now,  that  I  have  the  courage  to  show 
myself,  as  v,'ell  as  you  to  receive  me." 

The  last  was  ambiguous,  with  the  purpose  of 
hearing  whether  she  believed  in  his  motive  for 
breaking  the  engagement. 

"Did  you  believe  that  I  feared  you?"  asked 
she  and  took  a  stitch  with  her  needle. 

"  I  did  not  know  how  you  would  take  my  ex- 
planation, although  I  thought  I  knew  that  the  sor- 
row which  It  might  cause  you  would  be  easily 
consoled," 

There  lay  something  in  the  words  "  easily  con- 
soled," which  seemed  to  cut  the  girl  as  an  allusion 
to  the  young  consoler,  but  neither  of  them 
seemed  to  have  the  desire  to  betray  themselves; 
one  feared  to  show  jealousy,  and  the  other  was 
anxious  to  learn.  If  he  had  seen  anything. 

The  girl,  who  had  sat  at  her  work,  now  looked 
up  to  read  the  expression  in  the  face  of  her  op- 
ponent and  observed  with  a  wonder  which  she 
could  not  hide  the  many  orders  on  the  lapel  of 
his  dress  coat.  And  with  a  childish  pettlshness, 
which  only  hides  envy,  she  sneered: 

"  How  fine  you  are!  " 

"  I  shall  be  so  at  the  ball ! ' 

The  girl's  face  twitched,  twitched  so  terribly 
that  the  commissioner  felt  the  reflection  of  her 
pain  and  took  hold  of  her  hand  at  the  same  mo- 


256  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

ment  that  she  broke  out  with  a  terrible  cry.  And 
when  he  leaned  towards  her,  she  drew  her  head 
towards  his  chest  and  cried,  so  that  she  shook  as 
in  a  fever. 

*'  Child!  "  the  commissioner  said  soothingly. 

"Yes,  I  am  a  child!  Therefore  you  should 
have  indulgence  with  me !  "  sobbed  the  girl. 

"  Listen !  How  far  shall  one  have  indulgence 
with  a  child?" 

"Infinitely!" 

"  No!  I  have  never  heard  that!  There  is  a 
perfectly  determined  limit,  where  dissoluteness  ap- 
proaches criminal  action." 

"What  do  you  mean?" 

And  now  she  jumped  up. 

"  You  know  what  I  mean,  I  see  that,"  answered 
the  commissioner,  who  was  again  free  from  the 
enchantment,  for  as  soon  as  she  became  hard,  at 
the  same  moment  she  became  ugly. 

"Jealous,  thus!"  sneered  the  girl,  who  be- 
lieved she  had  caught  him. 

"  No,  for  jealousy  is  an  uncalled  for  suspicion, 
sometimes  a  measure  of  prudence,  but  my  appre- 
hensions have  proved  to  be  well  founded.  There- 
fore I  am  not  jealous!  " 

"  And  of  a  boy!  A  whelp,  that  you  are  stand- 
ing so  far  above,"  continued  the  girl  without  tak- 
ing the  explanation  into  consideration. 

"  So  much  the  more  ignominious  for  yourself  I  " 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  257 

"  Thus  the  whole  story  was  a  falsehood,"  she 
threw  between  to  escape  being  hit  by  the 
affront. 

"From  beginning  to  end  I  But  I  would  not 
cause  your  mother  sorrow  and  yourself  shame  1 
Do  you  understand  the  delicacy?  " 

"Yes,  I  understand  it!  But  I  do  not  under- 
stand myself  I  " 

"  That  I  should  be  able  to  do,  if  you  gave  me 
a  part  of  your  past  life !  " 

"  My  past  life!     What  do  you  mean?  " 

"  There  exists  then  a  past  in  your  life !  It  was 
this  I  always  suspected." 

"  You  allow  yourself  to  make  insinua- 
tions .  .  ." 

"  As  I  have  nothing  further  to  do,  with  who 
you  are  or  what  you  have  been,  so  .  .  .  Now  I 
must  say  farewell !  "  the  commissioner  broke  off, 
as  he  saw  a  gunner  out  on  the  hill  coming  for 
him. 

"  Don't  go  away  yet  I "  begged  the  girl  and 
grasped  his  hand,  looking  into  his  eyes  with 
drowning  glances.  "  Do  not  go  away,  for  then 
I  do  not  know  what  I  might  do." 

*'  Why  torment  ourselves  longer,  when  separa- 
tion is  inevitable?  " 

"  We  will  not  torment  ourselves  I  You  shall 
stay  with  me  this  evening,  so  that  we  can  talk  be- 
fore we  separate;  I  will  narrate  to  you  all  that 


258  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

you  wish  to  know,  and  after  that  you  will  judge 
me  differently." 

The  commissioner,  who  from  this  utterance  be- 
lieved he  knew  all  and  was  sure  that  he  had  es- 
caped the  misfortune  of  binding  himself  to  the 
mistress  of  one  or  more,  now  came  to  a  decision. 
He  went  to  the  window,  and  dismissed  the  gun- 
ner, saying  that  he  would  come  later  in  his  own 
boat. 

When  this  was  done,  he  sat  down  on  the  sofa 
for  the  starting  of  a  conversation. 

But  after  the  girl  was  relieved  of  her  uneasi- 
ness, she  relaxed  and  became  almost  speechless, 
so  that  finally  there  was  perfect  silence.  They  had 
nothing  to  say  to  each  other,  and  the  fear  of  stir- 
ring up  storm  birds  oppressed  more  and  more  the 
feelings,  so  that  tiresomeness  faced  them. 

The  commissioner  began  to  thumb  the  books, 
which  were  left  on  the  center  table,  and  caught 
sight  of  one  on  which  the  assistant's  name  was 
written. 

"  The  story  of  a  young  woman,  I  believe  1 
Have  you  read  it?  "  asked  he. 

"  No,  I  haven't  had  time  yet.  What  is  there 
about  the  book?  " 

"  Well,  it  is  remarkable  because  it  was  written 
by  a  woman  and  yet  is  sincere." 

"  So!     What  is  its  contents  then?  " 

**  Its  contents  are  about  free  love.     There  is 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  259 

a  young  scientist,  who  becomes  engaged  to  a  girl 
free  from  prejudice;  and  while  he  Is  on  an  expe- 
dition, she  lends  herself  to  an  artist,  while  expect- 
ing later  to  marry  her  betrothed." 

"  So  ?  What  does  the  authoress  say  about 
that?" 

"  She  only  laughs  at  that,  of  course." 

"  Fie  I  "  said  the  girl  and  rose  to  go  after  a 
bottle  of  wine. 

"Why  so?  No  right  of  ownership  in  love! 
And,  besides,  her  betrothed  was  tiresome,  at  least 
in  her  company,  to  judge  by  the  delineation  in  the 
book." 

"  Now  we  are  beginning  to  be  tiresome,  also," 
interrupted  Miss  Mary,  as  she  filled  the  glasses. 

"  What  shall  we  amuse  ourselves  with  then?  " 
asked  the  lover  with  an  amorous  smile,  which 
could  not  be  misunderstood.  "  Come  now  and 
sit  down  here  by  me." 

Instead  of  being  offended  at  the  coarse  tone 
and  gesture,  which  accompanied  the  invitation, 
the  girl  seemed  to  look  up  to  the  man  with  a  cer- 
tain admiration  where  before  she  had  almost 
despised  him  for  his  over-respectful  manners. 

The  twilight  had  fallen,  and  the  moon  in  its 
last  quarter  threw  only  a  yellow-green  stripe  in 
onto  the  floor,  silhouetting  the  shadow  of  the 
balsam. 

Through  the  open  window  came  the  subdued 


26o  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

tones  of  the  first  waltz,  "  The  Queen  of  the  Ball," 
as  a  reproach,  a  greeting  from  the  lost  Paradise, 
and  at  the  same  time  sustained  the  hope  that  all 
was  not  ended. 

And  in  the  hope  of  binding  him  by  a  memory 
of  the  highest  bliss  she  made  the  last  concession 
after  a  stormy  explanation  of  love  on  his  side. 


CHAPTER  THIRTEENTH 

Three  days  later  the  commissioner  landed  on 
East  Skerries  after  having  been  to  Dalaro.  When 
he  learned  that  the  young  lady  had  left  never  to 
return,  he  felt  an  Inexpressible  easiness,  as  though 
the  air  was  rarefied  and  purer.  Going  up  to  his 
room,  he  rested  before  the  open  window  to  smoke, 
and  in  memory  pass  through  the  changeful  sensa- 
tions of  the  past  days. 

When  he  at  midnight  had  torn  himself  from 
the  girl's  embrace,  he  had  placed  himself  In  the 
boat  with  a  certain  satisfaction;  as  though  he  had 
fulfilled  a  pressing  duty.  It  was  now  as  though 
the  equilibrium  had  been  replaced.  His  rights 
had  been  violated  in  such  a  case,  where  the  law 
did  not  give  redress,  and  therefore  he  must  pro- 
cure right  for  himself,  and  he  had  acted  only  upon 
the  principles  which  the  opponents  themselves  had 
promulgated. 

Afterwards  when  he  had  gone  aboard  the 
corvette  and  met  people,  with  whom  he  could  con- 
verse in  a  cultured  language,  and  had  discussed 
with  the  surgeon  learned  subjects,  it  at  first  acted 
as  an  intoxicant.     He  did  not  need  to  suppress 

261 


262  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

his  brain  for  childish  talk,  nor  make  himself 
semi-stupid  in  order  to  be  understood;  and  when 
he  only  expressed  himself  by  inference  or  with 
hints,  he  was  understood  at  once.  Then  he  felt 
that  he  had  been  living  three  months  in  barbarism, 
which  by  and  by  had  Imperceptibly  drawn  him 
down  into  trifling  battles,  which  had  placed  his 
thought  life  beneath  the  effective  and  vegetative; 
had  elevated  the  act  of  reproduction  to  be  the 
main  thing,  and  allured  him  to  enter  as  a  compet- 
itor In  a  strife  as  between  stallions,  from  which 
very  likely  he  would  have  come  out  victorious. 
And  so  he  understood  why  the  guardians  of  the 
universal  Christian  church,  who  were  sent  to  carry 
civilization  out  to  the  savages  of  all  nations,  were 
once  forbidden  to  found  a  family,  or  to  bind 
themselves  to  woman  or  children,  and  he  under- 
stood that  there  could  lay  a  rational  significance 
in  fasting  and  renunciation,  for  those  who  would 
live  a  higher  spiritual  life.  It  was  not  for  self- 
gratification  that  the  anchorite  sought  solitude, 
for  just  as  when  dropped  at  random  on  fallow 
ground,  the  solitary  grain  of  wheat  could  raise 
sixty  spears,  while  that  in  the  wheat  field  only 
gave  two,  where  the  seed  was  crowded  between 
millions  on  fertilized  ground,  so  could  that  indi- 
vidual, who  struggled  for  a  richer  development 
over  others,  only  grow  in  the  desert. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  263 

Three  days'  experience  had  corroborated  this, 
for  when  he  on  board  the  corvette  and  at  the 
bathing  resort  was  dragged  from  circle  to  circle, 
he  had  observed  every  night  when  he  went  to  bed, 
that  during  the  course  of  the  day  he  had  ground 
off  his  edges,  whereby  he  had,  like  a  precious 
stone,  gained  in  appearance  but  lost  in  carats. 
This  subserviency,  developed  by  common  sympa- 
thy for  the  human  being  and  by  the  tendency  of 
adaption  in  society  had  deluded  him  to  such  a 
degree,  that  the  opinions  which  he  had  improvised 
in  society  stuck  to  him  and  were  subsequently  recol- 
lected by  him  with  the  claim  of  being  his  inner- 
most thoughts.  And  he  had  finally  become  loath 
and  felt  himself  at  last  a  false  being,  who  said 
one  thing  and  thought  another;  he  began  to  blush 
for  himeslf  and  observed  that  with  increasing  es- 
teem he  gained  in  society  for  his  affable  manners, 
he  lost  all  esteem  for  himself. 

To  avoid  sinking  he  isolated  himself  again,  and 
the  regained  solitude  acted  upon  his  spirit  as  a 
steam  bath,  or  a  swim  in  the  sea,  where  liberty 
from  all  pressure,  all  contact  with  solid  material 
had  ceased;  and  he  decided  to  stay  on  the  skerry 
through  the  winter. 

For  this  purpose  he  rented  for  his  own  use  the 
cottage,  where  the  ladies  had  dwelt,  and  began  to 
install  himself  the  same  day.     The  one  big  room 


264  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

he  took  for  a  library  and  laboratory,  the  other  for 
dining  room  and  parlor;  the  attic  he  fixed  up  for 
a  bedroom. 

When  he  awoke  the  next  morning  In  his  new 
domicile,  after  a  dreamless  sleep,  he  found  a  new 
pleasure  in  having  a  house  alone  to  himself,  where 
he  need  not  have  forced  upon  him  suggestions 
from  others,  nor  receive  other  Impressions  than 
those  he  himself  determined  on. 

When  he  had  drunk  his  coffee,  he  sat  down  In 
the  library,  after  having  given  orders  that  he 
would  not  receive  visitors  before  three  o'clock  In 
the  afternoon. 

Nov/  he  took  up  an  old  plan  of  exploring  Eu- 
rope's present  ethnography,  in  a  way  that  would 
save  all  useless  travel.  On  printed  circulars, 
Issued  in  a  fictitious  name,  he  now  filled  In  the  ad- 
dresses, and  professional  titles  and  put  them  Into 
stamped  envelopes.  To  get  the  most  complete 
record  of  the  measurements  of  the  cranlums  and 
the  dimensions  of  the  body  he  had  decided  that 
circulars  sent  to  hat  makers,  makers  of  coffins, 
shirt  and  hosiery  manufacturers  In  Europe's  prin- 
cipal cities  asking  for  Information  as  to  the  sizes 
mostly  called  for  in  the  respective  countries,  would 
procure  for  him  the  desired  results.  The  circu- 
lars pretended  to  be  issued  with  the  view  of  ex- 
portation of  said  stuffs  at  wholesale  with  high 
profits.     In  addition  to  this  another  circular  was 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  265 

sent  to  the  great  as  well  as  the  smaller  book 
dealers  In  the  capitals  of  Europe  and  other  cities, 
with  a  request  for  photographs  of  all  kinds. 
These  were  to  be  paid  for  in  advance  at  the  high- 
est price  by  postal  order.  He  also  placed  himself 
in  communication  with  a  technlcist,  who  bought 
photographs  to  utilize  the  silver  In  them.  With 
this  and  the  thousand  of  portraits,  which  he  had 
cut  out  of  foreign  Illustrated  papers,  he  intended 
to  commence  his  explorations. 

When  he  had  finished  this  work,  it  was  dinner 
time.  He  went  out  of  doors  to  eat  It,  and  he  ob- 
served that  a  letter  was  In  the  mail  box  on  the 
door.  The  writing  was  familiar  to  him,  and  when 
he  had  assured  himself  It  was  from  Miss  Mary,  he 
did  not  open  It,  he  let  It  lay  beside  him  on  the  table ; 
meantime  he  ate  his  simple  dinner  In  great  haste. 
That  the  letter  did  not  contain  anything  agreeable, 
that  he  understood  as  he  had  broken  his  promise 
to  come  back  the  next  day  to  say  good-by,  and  now 
because  he  would  save  himself  all  disagreeable 
Impressions  he  laid  the  letter  aside  In  the  table 
drawer  without  opening  it. 

But  when  he  had  slept  an  hour  after  his  dinner 
and  the  heat  from  labor  and  food  had  disappeared, 
he  observed,  that  his  thoughts  did  not  turn  to 
books,  they  turned  towards  that  table  drawer. 
And  now  he  began  to  wander  up  and  down  the 
floor,  the  prey  of  vehement  and  fatiguing  battle. 


266  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

It  was  as  though  he  had  a  part  of  her  soul  locked 
up  in  this  drawer;  she  existed  in  the  room,  and  the 
spirit  of  her  power  of  attraction  lay  under  the 
white  envelope,  on  which  a  red  seal  lightened  as 
a  kiss.  He  saw  her  sitting  there  on  the  same  sofa, 
heard  her  whisperings,  felt  her  eyes  glowing  in 
the  dusk,  and  his  flesh  began  to  burn  again.  How 
stupid,  he  thought,  to  let  life's  highest  bliss  go 
out  of  one's  hands.  When  love  was  a  mutual  de- 
ceit, why  not  deceive  then !  Nothing  for  nothing  I 
And  when  a  perfect  happiness  did  not  exist,  why 
then  not  be  content  with  the  imperfect? 

Now  he  felt  that  he  would  have  crawled  to  her, 
lied  that  he  was  her  slave  and  acknowledged  him- 
self vanquished.  He  could  have  frightened  away 
the  rival;  and  with  her  alone  in  perfect  union  it 
would  have  been  easy  to  have  bound  her  with 
the  band  of  habit  and  interest,  and  finally  she 
would  not  take  the  enjoyment  from  someone 
else. 

But  so  came  the  fear,  that  this  letter  would  dis- 
perse his  last  hope,  which  still  was  better  than 
nothing,  and  he  would  not  read  it.  He  had  placed 
himself  at  his  laboratory  table,  and  almost  with- 
out thinking  of  what  he  did,  he  opened  an  iron  re- 
tort, put  in  the  letter  and  lit  the  blast  lamp  under 
it.  After  a  moment  the  smoke  puffed  out  through 
the  neck  of  the  retort,  and  when  it  ceased  he 
lighted  the  gas  with  a  match.     A  little  blue-yel- 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  267 

low  flame  burned  for  a  few  minutes  with  a  whis- 
tling sound  like  a  bat's  cry. 

The  spirit  of  the  letter,  as  an  alchemist  would 
have  said  1  A  mass  of  paper  which  was  consumed 
and  gave  the  same  products  of  combustion,  carbon 
and  hydrogen,  as  a  burning  soul  in  a  living  body. 
Carbon  and  hydrogen  !     It  was  all,  and  the  same  1 

The  flame  fluttered,  decreased,  disappeared  in 
the  neck,  and  it  was  dark  again  in  the  room ! 

It  had  again  grown  cloudy  out  over  the  sea,  and 
the  waves  were  going  before  the  east  wind,  beating 
towards  the  strand,  sighing,  hissing,  and  the  wind 
split  at  the  corners  like  the  waves  against  the  stem 
of  a  boat;  but  through  all  these  sounds  of  lamenta- 
tion was  heard  the  whistling  buoy's  crying  out  on 
the  sea,  rhythmetic  as  a  tragic  comedian,  when  he 
recites,  and  with  pauses,  just  as  though  to  recover 
his  breath  or  let  the  last  word  die  out;  before  he 
lets  a  new  one  stream  forth.  It  was  a  solo  for 
Titan  with  the  storm  for  an  accompaniment,  a 
giant  organ,  where  the  east  wind  tread  the  bel- 
lows. 

The  room  became  too  sultry  for  him,  and  he 
took  his  cloak  to  go  out  into  the  storm  and  let  his 
mood  blow  away.  Attracted  against  his  will  by 
the  light  of  a  lantern  in  the  provision  store,  he 
steered  his  steps  thither.  As  the  fishing  with 
drifting  nets  had  been  remunerative,  the  store  had 
a  lively  patronage,  and  hidden  by  darkness  he 


268  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

could  come  close  to  the  talking  fishermen  without 
being  seen. 

"  And  so  the  assistant  swiped  the  girl  from 
him,"  said  old  Oman;  "  and  so  she  got  a  real  man 
instead  of  that  one  .  .  ." 

"  Yes,  he  is  not  as  a  human  being  should  be," 
threw  in  the  unmarried  Vestman,  "  for  to-day  he 
wrote  as  good  as  hundreds  of  letters  for  the  mail. 
And  vv'hat  he  is  boiling  in  there  and  is  busy  with, 
no  mortal  can  tell,  but  I  think,  what  I  think  1  And 
we  must  have  our  eyes  open,  for  such  ones  as  lock 
themselves  in  and  boil,  we  know  them." 

"  Oh,  the  devil !  "  the  married  Vestman  fol- 
lowed with.  "Let  him  brew  his  drop  himself; 
it  cannot  turn  out  worse  with  him  than  old  Soder- 
lund,  who  mashed  out  on  the  rocks  and  lost  his 
still !     This  here  I  think  we  won't  meddle  with." 

"  Yes,  if  it  is  only  that,"  replied  Oman,  "  then 
let  him  go  on  with  it,  but  see  I  never  can  forget 
that  he  would  have  taken  the  net  from  me  that 
time,  and  if  I  catch  him  by  the  fin,  I  don't  let  him 
slip  until  I  have  him  in  the  cauf  .  .  ." 

"  Yes,  a  wicked  man  is  he  who  has  no  God!  " 
ended  the  colporteur.     "  That  is  sure !  " 

Without  having  the  slightest  trace  of  an  illu- 
sion in  regard  to  their  thankfulness,  the  commis- 
sioner could  not  help  feeling  an  uneasiness  at 
being  surrounded  in  the  desert  by  downright 
enemies  and  the  most  dangerous  of  the  dangerous, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  269 

who  believed  that  they  saw  In  him  an  Idiot  or  a 
criminal.  They  believed  that  he  was  distilling 
gin  to  save  twenty  cents  on  a  gallon!  They  sus- 
pected him  of  mixing  poisons  for  them.  If  any 
misfortunes  happened  here,  he  would  be  blamed 
for  It.  And  If  they  used  their  unlawful  nets,  he 
would  not  dare  to  seize  them  without  himself 
dreading  a  more  or  less  scandalous  charge,  or 
something  worse  than  that  —  their  revenge. 

It  was  a  dangerous  company,  dangerous  to  life 
as  stupidity.  And  although  he  knew  that  at  any 
moment  he  would  he  could  gain  all  of  them  for 
his  friends,  if  he  treated  them  to  a  gallon  of 
gin  and  stayed  with  them  himself  and  helped 
drink  It,  he  never  thought  to  do  this  for  one  mo- 
ment. Their  enmity  kept  him  free;  their  friend- 
ship would  have  dragged  him  down  Into  their  filth. 
Their  hate  could  only  act  as  an  annunciator  for  his 
power,  but  their  affections  would  have  neutralized 
it,  even  if  their  spirits  never  could  enter  into  con- 
tact with  his.  And  the  very  danger  had  its  pleas- 
ure, because  it  kept  his  spirit  awake  and  elastic, 
gave  him  something  to  counteract,  for  exercise. 
Besides  the  danger  out  here  among  these  savages 
was  not  less  than  that  In  the  upper  circles,  which 
he  had  lately  left,  and  where  the  power  to  do  real 
harm  was  greater.  Had  not  the  surgeon  on  board 
the  corvette  regarded  him  as  sick,  when  he  spoke 
of  the  necessity  of  finding  a  method  to  utilize  the 


2  70  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

enormous  quantity  of  nitrous  oxide,  which  was 
wasted  In  the  manufacture  of  commercial  sulphuric 
acid,  while  at  the  same  time  the  expensive  saltpeter 
Is  Imported  from  Chile  to  compensate  for  the 
soil's  losses  of  nitrogen.  Or  when  he  projected 
something  about  utilizing  the  smoke  from  the 
chimneys  for  technical  purposes,  had  not  this 
friend  advised  him  to  take  a  sojourn  at  a  watering 
place  and  reside  among  human  beings. 

Rather  stay  in  absolute  solitude  and  pass  for  an 
idiot  among  redskins  than  be  condemned  to  a  civil 
death  by  equals  with  authority  and  decision  with- 
out appeal. 

After  he  had  wandered  a  moment  In  the  dark- 
ness, he  returned  to  his  cottage  and  lighted  the 
candles  and  lamps  in  his  two  rooms  and  opened 
the  doors  onto  the  porch,  whereby  he  lessened  the 
impression  of  being  locked  In. 

When  he  now  looked  at  his  watch  It  was  only 
eight  o'clock.  The  long  evening  and  night  which 
were  coming  frightened  him,  for  his  head  was  too 
tired  to  work,  but  not  sufficiently  so  to  enable  him 
to  sleep.  The  wind  blew  fiercely  round  the  house 
corners,  the  din  of  the  waves  and  the  roaring  of 
the  whistling  buoy  made  him  nervous.  To  free 
himself  from  the  suggestions  of  these  sounds,  to 
which  he  would  not  be  a  slave,  he  placed  in  "  sleep- 
ing bullets  "  which  were  small  steel  balls  he  had 
bought  In  Germany,  which  when  placed  In  the  ears, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  271 

prevented  every  sound  from  penetrating  and  being 
perceived. 

But  when  he  thus  had  shut  off  perhaps  the  great- 
est line  of  communication  with  the  outer  world, 
his  fantasy  began  to  labor  at  a  higher  pressure.  A 
mad  curiosity  to  know  what  the  burned  letter  could 
have  contained,  gripped  him  Irresistibly,  so  that 
he  opened  the  retort  to  try  to  read  In  the  ashes. 
But  even  the  Ink  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  there 
was  no  trace  to  be  seen  of  the  writing.  Now  the 
field  was  open  for  all  kinds  of  doubts  and  guesses. 
Sometimes  he  believed  he  could  draw  conclusions 
as  to  what  the  letter  had  contained  from  all  that 
had  passed,  sometimes  he  rejected  this,  remember- 
ing the  girl's  illogical  way  to  think  and  act. 

So  finally  he  stopped  at  the  decision  that  It  was 
impossible  to  reason  It  out,  and  he  decided  not  to 
worry  over  It  any  more.  But  his  brain  had  be- 
come unrestrainable  and  was  worrying  on  Its  own 
account,  grinding  and  sifting,  until  he  became 
completely  exhausted,  without  being  able  to  sleep. 
And  with  the  Increasing  feebleness  in  the  organ 
of  thought  the  lower  propensities  awoke. 

Enraged  that  his  soul  could  not  hold  out  in  the 
battle  with  a  fragile  body,  he  finally  undressed 
and  took  a  dose  of  potassium  bromide,  and  at 
once  the  brain  stopped  In  Its  wild  career,  fantasies 
banished,  the  consciousness  was  stunned,  and  he 
fell  asleep  as  heavily  as  though  dead. 


CHAPTER  FOURTEENTH 

The  autumn  had  advanced,  but  on  the  skerry 
could  not  be  seen  that  the  summer  had  gone,  for 
there  was  not  a  deciduous  tree  to  turn  yellow,  and 
the  lichens  on  the  rocks  had  become  more  luxuri- 
ant, and  swelled  by  the  moisture,  the  heath  and 
the  crowberry  vines  had  taken  on  a  new  verdure, 
the  juniper  and  the  dwarf  pines,  the  eternally  green 
trees  of  the  north,  were  freshened  and  freed  from 
dust  by  rain. 

The  fishermen  had  flown,  as  their  labor  for  the 
fall  was  ended;  the  silence  had  again  returned,  and 
the  provision  store  was  closed.  The  wooden 
frame  of  the  chapel  became  more  naked,  as  the 
boards  had  been  picked  off  for  firewood  and  car- 
penter's lumber,  so  that  there  was  only  the  stud- 
dings  to  be  seen,  which  resembled  a  complex  of 
gibbets. 

The  preacher  was  seldom  seen  now,  for  since 
he  had  become  an  abstainer,  he  had  misused  the 
china  wine,  which  was  a  compound  containing 
brandy,  and  he  already  had  buzzings  in  his  ears, 
palpitation  of  the  heart  and  was  sleeping  most 
of  the  time. 

273 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  273 

The  commissioner  after  a  month  of  labor  had 
succeeded  in  curing  his  soul  of  the  shot  wound  he 
had  received  at  the  game  of  love.  With  potas- 
sium Iodide  and  low  diet  he  had  subdued  the  de- 
sires, and  when  the  tristesse  of  the  solitude  took 
him,  he  generated  a  portion  of  laughing  gas  from 
ammonium  nitrate,  for  he  had  found  a  long  time 
previous  that  intoxication  from  alcohol  was  vile 
and  succeeded  by  greater  dejection  with  mania  for 
suicide.  At  first  the  wonderous  nitrous  oxide  had 
cheered  him  up  and  made  him  laugh,  but  the  banal 
giggle  had  dissolved  all  his  great  thoughts  and 
struggles  Into  a  nothing,  at  which  he  laughed,  but 
when  he  had  found  himself  down  among  the  gig- 
glers,  who  had  giggled  at  him,  he  felt  the  need  of 
raising  himself  up  again  above  his  former  self, 
and  he  missed  his  sorrows  and  his  griefs. 

But  when  he  had  isolated  himself  completely, 
so  that  the  chambermaid  was  only  permitted  to 
clean  the  room  and  bring  In  food,  while  he  locked 
himself  up  in  the  attic  room,  all  the  memories  from 
the  summer  commenced  to  haunt  him.  He  re- 
membered now  without  wishing  it,  every  word  that 
had  been  said.  And  now  the  appearance  of  the 
preacher  In  the  mist  on  the  islet  appeared  as  some- 
thing that  had  been  planned.  The  words  which 
he  had  uttered  concerning  his  father  and  his  cir- 
cumstances compared  with  those  of  Miss  Mary, 
that  she  knew  who  he  was,  now  took  root,  grew 


2  74  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

and  became  big.  There  must  exist  some  secret 
in  his  life,  which  everybody  knew  except  himself. 
And  soon  he  saw  In  the  appearance  of  the  preacher 
that  of  a  planned  spying,  sustained  by  someone 
who  wished  to  persecute  him.  He  did  not  believe 
this  In  calmer  moments,  for  he  knew  very  well 
that  the  mania  of  persecution  was  the  first  symptom 
of  that  Infirmity,  which  accompanies  isolation. 
Human  beings  formed  a  great  electrical  battery  of 
many  elements,  and  when  an  element  Is  Isolated, 
It  loses  its  power.  The  Induction  coil  of  copper 
wire  was  lame  at  the  same  moment  the  soft  iron 
rod  was  taken  out,  and  he  was  on  the  way  to  be 
lame,  since  his  Iron  rod  had  become  tempered 
steel. 

Yes,  but  that  was  not  that  sickly  mania  of  per- 
secution, which  comes  from  bodily  infirmity,  for  he 
had  In  fact  been  persecuted,  opposed  from  the  very 
moment,  that  he  In  the  school  bespoke  that  he 
would  be  a  power,  a  former  of  a  species,  that 
would  be  able  to  break  from  Its  kindred  and  like 
the  differentiating  herb  beget  for  itself  a  name 
of  its  own,  perhaps  the  name  of  a  new  genus. 
He  had  been  persecuted,  instinctively  from  below 
by  Inferiors  and  above  by  the  mediocre,  which  lat- 
ter sat  as  gauges  and  determined  the  standard,  by 
which  greatness  should  be  judged.  He  had  been 
hated  and  picked  at  as  the  yellow  high-bred  bird 
of  the  Canary  Islands,  when  It  had  flown  out  of 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  275 

its  cage  and  come  among  green-finches  out  in  the 
forest,  where  its  too  splendid  attire  provoked  the 
wild  birds. 

But  nature,  in  which  he  had  sought  company  be- 
fore, now  became  dead  to  him,  for  the  inter- 
mediary, the  human  being,  was  wanting.  The  sea, 
which  he  had  worshiped  and  which  he  sought  as 
the  only  grandeur  in  his  paltry  country  with  its 
petty,  trivial  summer  cottage  landscapes  seemed 
to  him  to  become  narrow,  as  his  ego  swelled. 
This  blue,  turpentine-green,  gray  circle  enclosed 
him  as  a  prison  yard,  and  the  uniformity  of  the 
little  landscape  brought  the  same  pain,  as  prison 
cells  might  cause,  by  their  want  of  variety.  To 
travel  away  from  the  whole  he  could  not,  for  he 
sat  with  his  roots  in  the  earth,  in  his  little  Impres- 
sions, his  diet,  and  he  could  not  be  removed  with 
the  root.  It  was  the  Norseman's  tragic,  which 
uttered  itself  in  longing  for  the  south. 

It  was  then  that  he  commenced  to  think  out  a 
plan  for  connecting  the  country,  the  island  country, 
—  for  that  it  had  a  connection  by  Lapland  did  not 
change  the  case  —  with  the  mainland.  First 
there  should  be  a  six  hours'  lightning  train  to  Hel- 
singborg  and  communication  with  a  steam  ferry 
boat  across  the  sound  making  the  capital  of  Den- 
mark the  center  of  the  North.  Ice  free  harbors 
on  Djuro  and  Nynas  with  ice  breakers  should  keep 
commerce   and  navigation  alive  the  whole  year 


276  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

round;  the  northern  winter  sleep  would  thereby 
be  retrenched,  and  the  national  character,  unsteadi- 
ness, which  is  said  to  be  owing  to  that  six  months 
interruption  of  all  activity,  should  change  nature. 
The  Russian  commerce  to  England  should  got 
through  Stockholm  and  Gothenborg,  and  the  old 
scheme  of  Charles  XI  and  Charles  XII,  to  get  the 
Persia  and  India  trade  over  Russia  and  Sweden 
would  be  realized. 

Sweden  should  become  a  country  for  tourists, 
and  foreigners  would  be  allured  to  her.  He 
would  change  Stockholm  to  a  seaport  by  closing 
the  lake  Malar  at  the  North  Bridge  and  the  Sluice, 
and  give  it  another  outlet  through  a  system  of 
canals  leading  to  the  cove  of  Trosa.  Thereby 
the  salt  water  would  come  up  to  Stockholm,  which 
would  change  the  atmosphere  conditions  and  conse- 
sequently  the  inhabitants. 

But  he  remembered  the  time  when  Sweden,  still 
belonging  to  the  great,  universal  Christian  church, 
stood  in  direct  communication  with  Rome  and 
thereby  was  of  some  account  to  Europe.  He 
would,  if  it  was  shown  that  religion  could  not  be 
abandoned  by  the  multitude,  again  introduce  this 
our  forefathers'  faith,  which  we  with  fire  and 
sword  had  been  urged  to  abjure,  and  whose  mar- 
tyrs, Hans  Brask,  Olaus  and  Johannes  Magnus, 
Nils  Dacke,  and  Ture  Jonsson  have  become  so 
shamefully  soiled  in   history.     And  Catholicism, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  277 

the  Roman  legacy,  the  first  promulgator  of  the 
idea  of  Europeism  had  conquered  all  Europe. 
Bismarck  had  fallen  in  the  combat  of  culture,  gone 
to  Canossa  and  selected  the  Pope  for  an  arbitrator, 
as  he  had  commenced  to  believe  in  arbitrations 
without  steel  cannons.  Denmark  had  built  Cath- 
olic cathedrals,  and  the  young  Danes  had  already 
lent  their  pens  to  the  cause.  The  germanization 
of  the  North  like  that  of  North  Germany  was  only 
a  relapse  into  barbarism  after  the  Hun  battles  of 
1870  the  consequences  of  which  have  become  mani- 
fest in  persecution  against  Latin,  and  in  French 
hate,  which  is  uttered  in  wars  of  extermination 
against  French  literature,  in  North  Germany 
family  politics  and  Lutheran  inquisition  with 
prisons  for  heretics  and  a  general  lowering  of  the 
level  of  Intelligence. 

Lutherism,  that  was  the  foe !  Teutonic  culture ; 
bourgeois  religion  in  black  pants,  sectaristic  nar- 
rowness, particularism,  sundering,  intrenchment 
and  spiritual  death! 

No,  Europe  should  be  one  again,  and  the  peo- 
ples' way  be  over  Rome,  the  way  of  intelligence 
over  Paris! 

The  Swedish  peasant  should  again  feel  himself 
as  cosmopolitan  and  leave  his  position  in  the  under 
class,  again  get  that  glimpse  of  the  culture  of 
beauty  which  the  church  formerly  offered  in  pic- 
tures and  tunes;  his  divine  service  should  be   a 


278  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

true  hymn  in  the  Roman  language,  composed  by 
poets,  and  not  compounded  by  hymn  book 
makers  and  of  which  he  should  understand  exactly 
as  httle,  as  would  awaken  his  highest  ideas  about 
that  which  he  nevertheless  would  not  comprehend. 
His  high  mass  should  be  performed  by  real  min- 
isters, who  devoted  their  life  to  religion  and  the 
care  of  souls,  and  not  to  agriculture,  dairy  busi- 
ness, whist  playing  and  office  work;  and  then  the 
peasant's  wife  would  get  a  guardian  of  her  soul, 
to  whom  she  at  confession  could  intrust  her  sor- 
rows instead  of  running  into  the  kitchen  of  the 
parsonage  and  gossiping  about  it  to  the  servants. 

And  with  the  re-installment  of  Latin  every  Up- 
sala  student's  dissertation  could  be  read  as  of  old 
by  the  learned  of  Europe  and  every  Swedish  in- 
vestigator feel  himself  a  member  of  the  great  uni- 
versal corporation  of  the  intelligence  under  the 
pontificate  in  Paris. 

This  and  other  thoughts  he  put  down  on  paper 
and  laid  it  in  the  table  drawer,  for  he  had  not  a 
newspaper,  that  would  print  them,  least  of  all  the 
patriots  who  "  from  envy  had  no  desire  to 
receive  projects  for  the  elevation  of  the  country." 

He  had  now  got  the  answers  to  his  circulars  and 
had  the  attic  room  filled  with  materials  for  his 
European  ethnography.  But  now  the  subject  had 
lost  its  interest,  and  his  soul  had  become  sick  in 
earnest,  so  that  he  did  not  even  dare  go  out.     The 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  279 

aspect  of  a  human  being  awoke  such  a  loathing, 
that  he  turned  back  home,  If  he  only  saw  one.  At 
the  same  time  grew  the  contemporary  need  of 
hearing  his  own  voice  and  to  unload  his  over-pro- 
ductive brain  by  contact  with  another  being,  to  feel 
himself  exerting  Influence  on  the  life  of  others 
and  to  have  company.  He  had  thought  for  a 
moment  to  get  a  dog,  but  to  lay  down  deposits 
from  his  soul  and  his  feelings  In  an  animal  body 
was  to  graft  grapes  onto  thistles  and  he  had  never 
been  allured  by  the  sympathy  of  dirty,  food  court- 
ing animals. 

There  was  only  one  man  for  whom  he  felt  a 
certain  attraction,  and  that  was  the  married  man 
of  the  custom  house,  Vestman,  whose  wife  was 
living  in  bigamy,  without  her  husband's  knowing 
it.  He  had  an  honest  look  and  an  awakened  In- 
tellect, and  with  him  the  commissioner  had  bound 
the  companionship  by  presenting  him  with  a  salmon 
trawl  with  hooks.  He  had  at  the  beginning  of  the 
summer  lent  him  books  and  taught  him  how  to 
write  after  a  copy,  but  since  the  fishing  had  been 
in  force  and  navigation  had  become  lively,  their 
paths  had  separated. 

But  in  order  to  get  the  man  to  really  place  out 
the  trawl  the  commissioner  would  not  tell  him  that 
it  was  for  salmon,  for  then  the  conservative  fish- 
erman would  never  concern  himself  with  what  was 
according  to  his  idea  an  absurd  exploit  without  re- 


2  8o  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

ward;  therefore  he  was  left  in  the  belief  that  the 
question  was  about  a  new  remunerative  cod  fishing; 
where  the  biggest  fishes  should  be  caught. 

When  the  commissioner  now  after  a  month  of 
isolation  rowed  out  on  the  sea  with  Vestman  and  he 
heard  his  own  voice  again,  he  observed  that  from 
lack  of  use  it  had  changed  its  tone  and  become 
thinner,  so  that  he  fancied  he  heard  a  stranger 
talk.  And  now  he  intoxicated  himself  with  talk- 
ing. His  brain,  which  had  only  labored  and  pro- 
duced by  hand  and  pen,  broke  now  through  the 
sluices  of  the  windpipe,  and  all  his  thoughts  flowed 
out  as  in  a  stream,  giving  new  births  on  the  way, 
and  when  he  had  got  the  chance  to  speak  to  a  hu- 
man being's  ear  for  a  sounding  board  without  be- 
ing interrupted,  without  being  questioned,  it  was 
to  him  as  though  he  had  a  comprehending  listener 
before  him.  And  after  their  first  outing  he  felt 
sure  that  Vestman  was  the  most  intelligent  per- 
son he  had  m.et  for  a  long  time. 

Now  h.e  kept  on  for  eight  days  and  narrated 
during  their  excursions  about  all  the  secrets  of 
nature,  explained  the  influence  of  the  moon  on  the 
surface  of  the  water,  and  warned  him  not  to  be- 
lieve that  all  that  the  eyes  saw  was  as  it  looked 
to  be.  Narrated,  for  example,  that  the  moon  was 
pear  shaped,  although  it  looked  like  a  bowl,  and 
that  one,  therefore,  had  no  surety  that  the  earth 
was  ball  shaped  .  .   . 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  281 

Here  Vestman  made  a  face  and  dared  to  raise 
an  objection  for  the  first  time. 

"  Yes,  but  It  says  so  In  my  almanac  anyhow." 

The  commissioner  found  that  he  had  gone  out 
too  far  and  must  return,  but  It  was  too  late,  be- 
cause to  give  a  demonstration  of  the  latest  Investi- 
gations regarding  the  shape  of  the  earth  as  being 
a  three  axled  ellipsoid,  required  knowledge  in  the 
listener,  and  therefore  he  must  change  to  another 
subject.  He  spoke  of  the  mirage  and  used  the 
occasion  to  ask  if  they  had  visited  Sword  Island 
and  seen  what  he  had  done  there. 

"  Surely  we  have  seen  that  something  has  been 
going  on  there,  but  nobody  lands  there  more,  and 
both  the  draughting  of  nets  and  the  pasturing  of 
sheep  are  spoiled,"  answered  Vestman  perfectly 
In  accordance  with  truth. 

After  this  confession  the  commissioner  drew 
back,  ashamed  at  having  been  the  victim  of  the 
delusion  that  his  listener  had  understood  what  he 
said.  He  had  spoken  against  a  wall  and  taken 
his  own  echo  for  the  other's  voice. 

Eight  days  later  there  was  a  great  stir  on  the 
skerry,  for  Vestman  had  caught  a  salmon  of 
twenty-six  pounds.  And  as  he  believed  he  was 
the  discoverer  of  this  method  of  fishing,  there  was 
soon  a  notice  In  the  newspaper  about  a  new  liveli- 
hood for  fishermen,  now  that  the  stromling  had  be- 


282  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

gun  to  decrease.  The  happy  fisherman,  Eric  Vest- 
man  of  the  custom  house  service,  had  thereby  made 
himself  deserving  of  the  esteem  and  gratitude  of 
his  fellow  citizens  ... 

Shortly  afterwards  there  occurred  in  a  periodical 
for  the  people  a  defamatory  article  about  fish  com- 
missioners, who  understand  nothing,  but  believe 
they  have  everything  to  teach. 

Hereafter  a  writing  soon  followed  from  the 
Academy  of  Agriculture  to  the  commissioner  with 
the  request  for  a  complete  report  of  the  manage- 
ment of  the  fishing,  especially  the  salmon  fishing, 
to  which  the  commissioner  only  answered  by  hand- 
ing in  his  resignation. 

Without  further  interest  for  the  population  and 
without  that  little  support,  which  his  former  of- 
ficial position  had  given  him,  he  soon  learned  how 
the  savages,  who  thought  that  he  had  "  been  dis- 
charged," commenced  a  perfect  war  of  extermina- 
tion against  him.  First  they  began  to  cast  his 
boat  loose,  under  the  pretense  that  there  was  no 
place  on  the  bridge,  and  it  drifted  to  land  and  was 
broken  to  pieces. 

During  the  next  rainy  weather  he  observed,  that 
the  rain  came  into  the  attic  room.  And  after  he 
had  complained  to  Oman  it  began  to  rain  into  the 
other  rooms,  without  his  discovering  a  failing 
rooftife. 

Shortly  after  this,  one  night,  a  burglary  occurred 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  283 

In  the  cellar,  and  the  offenders  were  said  to  be 
Esthonians. 

That  their  purpose  was  to  drive  him  away  was 
perfectly  clear,  but  now  it  amused  him  to  defy 
them,  and  this  he  did  by  not  making  any  further 
remarks,  and  bearing  everything. 

But  now  when  he  was  surrounded  by  real  ene- 
mies and  had  in  earnest  stepped  out  of  the  com- 
munity, the  fear  of  the  banished  came  over  him 
with  double  force. 

He  slept  poorly  nights,  notwithstanding  he 
sought  to  regulate  his  dreams  by  giving  himself 
strong  suggestions  before  sleeping.  But  when  he 
awoke,  he  had  dreamed  that  he  was  a  whistling 
buoy  that  had  torn  lose,  and  drifted  and  drifted 
seeking  a  strand  upon  which  to  be  thrown.  And 
in  his  sleep  he  had  unconsciously  sought  support 
against  the  sideboard  of  the  bed  to  feel  contact 
with  some  object,  even  if  a  dead  one.  Some- 
times he  dreamed,  that  he  fluttered  in  the  air  and 
could  neither  go  up  nor  down;  and  when  he  finally 
awoke  after  a  fainting  attack  he  had  grasped  his 
hands  round  the  pillow  on  which  he  had  lain  his 
head.  Now  the  memory  of  his  dead  mother  be- 
gan to  come  up,  and  he  awoke  often  from  dream- 
ing that  he  had  lain  as  a  child  on  her  breast.  His 
soul  was  plainly  In  retrogression,  and  the  memory 
of  the  mother  the  source,  the  link  between  uncon- 
scious and  conscious  life,  the  consoler,  the  inter- 


284  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

ceder,  came  forth.  Childhood's  thoughts  of  meet- 
ing again  in  another  world  came  up,  and  his  first 
plan  of  suicide  expressed  itself  as  an  irresistible 
longing  to  find  again  his  mother  somewhere  in 
another  world,  which  he  did  not  believe  in. 

All  science  was  useless  to  a  spirit  going  down- 
wards, and  which  had  lost  all  Interest  in  life;  the 
brain  had  battled,  until  tired,  and  the  fantasy  la- 
bored without  a  regulator. 

Still  he  kept  up  until  it  was  near  Christmas;  but 
he  ate  little  and  took  only  ether  at  night.  The 
whole  life  disgusted  him,  and  he  smiled  now  at  his 
former  ambitions.  The  rain  had  destroyed  his 
books  and  papers;  the  apparatus  had  corroded  and 
rusted. 

The  care  of  his  own  person  had  lessened,  so 
that  his  whiskers  had  grown,  his  hair  remained 
unkempt,  and  he  shunned  water.  He  had  not  sent 
his  linen  to  be  laundried  for  a  long  time,  and  he 
had  lost  the  ability  to  see  dirt. 

His  clothes  lacked  buttons,  and  his  coat  was 
always  spotted  in  front  from  things  spilt,  for  the 
hand  that  managed  knife  and  fork  no  longer 
obeyed  the  will. 

When  he  went  out  sometimes,  the  children  stood 
and  made  faces  at  him  and  called  him  nicknames. 

One  morning  he  had  the  whole  swarm  of  chil- 
dren around  him.  They  pulled  his  coat,  and  when 
he  turned  back,  a  stone  was  thrown,  which  hit 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  285 

his  chin  so  that  the  blood  ran.     Then  he  began  to 
weep  and  begged  them  not  to  be  cross  with  him. 

"  Yes,  you  shall  go  away,  you  devilish  fool," 
cried  a  boy  of  twelve  years,  "  lest  we  shall  get  you 
to  the  almshouse." 

And  so  they  all  threw  stones.  But  then  Oman's 
maid  came  out  and  took  the  boy  by  the  hair,  and 
when  she  had  chastised  him,  she  went  to  the  as- 
sailed and  wiped  the  blood  from  his  face  with  her 
apron. 

"  Poor  little  man  I  "  said  she. 

Then  he  leaned  his  head  towards  her  full 
bosom  and  said : 

*'  I  will  sleep  with  you." 

"  Oh,  shame !  "  snubbed  the  maid  and  pushed 
him  away  from  her. 

He  replied,  "  How  coarse  your  thoughts  are ! 
Fie!" 

One  evening  some  days  later  Vestman's  maid  ran 
down  and  begged  the  Doctor  to  come  up  and  see 
iVestman's  wife,  who  was  dying.  The  request 
seemed  somewhat  unexpected  to  the  commissioner, 
but  with  the  clear-sightedness  which  during  inter- 
vals of  light  accompanied  his  sickness,  he  perceived 
that  here  a  murder  had  been  committed  and  that 
they  would  use  his  name  and  title  instead  of  a 
legal  medical  examination.  The  case  was  imma- 
terial to  him,  but  it  aroused  him  for  a  moment. 
Something  had  happened,  and  the  unusual  had 


286  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

made  a  long  needed  impression.  He  therefore 
went  up  to  the  custom  house  cottage  and  was  re- 
ceived by  both  brothers,  who  showed  him  Into  the 
sick  room  with  a  politeness,  which  seemed  to  the 
commissioner  extremely  suspicious.  But  he  said 
nothing,  asked  nothing,  for  he  would  draw  out  the 
vague  confession  by  constraining  the  husband  to 
speak  first,  sure  that  he  would  betray  himself  at 
the  first  word. 

By  a  tallow  candle  sat  the  child  eating  a  cookie, 
which  had  not  been  given  her  without  an  object, 
and  she  was  dressed  in  her  best  clothes,  probably 
so  that  she  should  feel  solemn  and  appear  In  a  con- 
strained manner. 

After  the  commissioner  had  looked  around  the 
room  and  observed  that  Vestman's  brother  had 
sneaked  out,  he  stepped  up  to  the  bed  where  the 
woman  lay. 

He  saw  at  once  that  she  was  dead,  and  by  the 
contracted  muscles  of  her  face  he  understood 
that  some  violence  had  been  committed,  and  when 
he  also  observed  that  her  hair  was  carefully 
combed  over  the  top  of  her  head,  he  understood  at 
once  that  the  old,  good  way  with  the  nail  had  been 
used. 

But  he  would  have  the  man  speak  first,  and  with 
half  open  lips  and  questioning  eyes,  just  as  though 
he  would  ask  something,  he  turned  to  Vestman. 
This  at  once  put  him  off  his  guard,  and  relying, 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  287 

that  he  need  no  longer  be  sly  with  one  who  was 
insane,  he  said: 

**  Can't  the  Doctor  testify  that  she  is  gone,  so 
that  we  shall  be  permitted  to  bury  her  at  once, 
for  you  see,  we  poor  cannot  afford  to  call  a  physi- 
cian out  here." 

More  was  not  needed  to  give  half  a  surety. 
But  instead  of  answering  the  commissioner  turned 
half  whispering  towards  the  man  who  was  per- 
fectly calm  after  he  had  delivered  his  errand: 

"  Where  is  the  hammer?  " 

At  first  the  man  flew  backwards  two  steps,  as  if 
he  would  strangle  his  opponent,  who  still  disarmed 
him  by  casting  a  glance  at  the  girl,  after  which 
the  husband  stood  still  shivering. 

"  You  do  not  know  where  the  hammer  Is,  but 
I  know  where  the  nail  is  driven,"  the  commissioner 
continued  with  an  immovable  calm.  "  Over  pru- 
dent asses,  who  cannot  invent  anything  new,  and 
like  children  always  hide  on  the  same  place,  when 
they  play  goal.  I  am  convinced  that  this  nailing 
the  brain  was  invented  by  a  nobleman  or  a  priest 
during  the  Middle  Ages  and  has  now  sunk  down  to 
the  under  class,  where  it  is  dug  up  as  a  sample  of 
the  peoples'  craftiness.  Everything  comes  from 
above,  salmon,  arsenic,  nails,  accidental  shootings, 
revolutions,  personal  liberty,  financial  well  being, 
ballads,  folk-lore,  farmers'  almanacs,  anthropo- 
logical museums,  but  they  are  first  stolen,  for  you 


288  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

mob  prefer  to  steal  rather  than  take  a  gift,  for 
you  are  too  paltry  to  be  willing  to  give  thanks. 
And  therefore  you  place  your  benefactors  In  an 
asylum,  and  your  noblemen  on  the  scaffold.  Place 
me  now  in  an  asylum,  and  you  will  escape  prison !  " 

Coming  down  to  the  cottage  he  remembered  that 
the  pleasure  of  speaking  what  he  thought  had  al- 
lured him  to  an  Imprudent  act,  and  with  knowledge 
of  the  peoples'  character  he  knew  that  self-defense 
against  a  dangerous  witness  might  determine  the 
murderer  to  put  him  to  silence.  He  slept,  there- 
fore, during  the  night  with  a  revolver  in  the  bed 
and  was  awakened  by  bad  dreams. 

The  following  day  he  remained  locked  in  and 
saw  how  white  sheets  hung  at  the  windows  In  the 
custom  house  cottage.  The  third  day  the  body 
was  brought  out  and  taken  away  on  a  boat,  and 
the  fourth  day  the  men  came  back  again.  He  did 
not  sleep  any  more  now,  and  Insomnia  completed 
the  work  of  destruction.  The  fear  of  becoming 
Insane  and  being  placed  in  an  asylum,  mixed  with 
the  apprehension  of  being  assassinated  at  any  time, 
confirmed  his  decision  to  step  out  of  life  volun- 
tarily. Now,  when  death  approached  and  the  end 
of  life,  of  a  family,  stood  forth  in  its  gloom,  It 
was  as  though  the  propensity  of  generation  sprang 
up,  and  found  utterance  in  the  longing  to  own  a 
child.  But  to  go  the  whole  trite  way  to  search  for 
a  woman,  and  bind  himself  by  family  to  the  eartht 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  289 

and  community,  was  against  him  more  than  ever, 
and  in  his  frail,  torn  condition  he  speculated  out  a 
shorter  way,  which  would  give  him  family  pleas- 
ure, if  only  for  a  few  hours. 

In  a  roundabout  way,  at  which  his  sense  of  del- 
icacy would  have  revolted  a  few  months  before, 
he  procured  after  some  waiting  the  seed  of  a  hu- 
man being,  and  then  he  constructed  a  cotivetise, 
under  the  microscope  which  could  be  kept  at  a 
temperature  from  thirty-six  to  forty-one  degrees 
Celsius.  When  fecundation  had  taken  place,  he 
saw  how  the  males  were  swarming  round  the  im- 
movable female,  which  he  imagined  he  saw  blush- 
ing. And  now  they  crowded,  pushed,  whipped 
each  other  in  the  battle  to  give  impetus  to  a  gen- 
eration to  propagate  his  talents,  inoculating  his 
rich,  productive  spirit  on  a  buxom,  rank,  wild 
substratum.  But  it  was  not  the  largest,  those 
with  big,  stupid  heads  and  thick  tails,  it  was  the 
quickest,  the  agile,  the  most  fiery,  who  first  pene- 
trated the  membrane  to  push  into  the  nucleus. 

With  the  screw  of  the  alcohol  lamp  under  his 
thumb  and  one  eye  on  the  thermometer  he 
looked  at  this  unveiled  mystery  of  love  for  a 
couple  of  hours.  Saw,  how  the  cells  commenced 
to  cleave,  how  the  division  of  labor  between  the 
different  segments  had  already  taken  place  and 
he  waited  with  uneasiness  for  the  anterior  end  of 
the  medullary  tube  to  swell  into  a  bulb,  which 


290  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

would  constitute  the  primary  brain;  he  dreamed 
that  he  could  see  this  forge  of  thought  arching 
beautffully,  and  he  felt  for  a  moment  a  pride  at 
his  creation,  which  solved  the  problem  of  Homun- 
culus,  when  a  movement  on  the  screw  of  the 
lamp  caused  the  white  of  the  egg  to  coagulate 
and  the  spark  of  life  to  be  extinguished. 

He  had  lived  so  Intensely  this  other  being's 
life  during  these  moments,  that  now,  when  he 
saw  the  round,  dull,  white  spot  on  the  glass,  It  was 
to  him,  as  If  he  beheld  the  sunken  eye  of  death, 
and  magnified  In  his  sickly  senses  the  grief  grew 
to  sorrow,  the  sorrow  over  his  dead  child:  the 
band  between  this  and  the  future  was  severed, 
and  he  no  longer  had  power  to  do  It  over. 

When  he  awoke  and  came  to  his  senses,  he 
felt  a  strong  warm  hand  grasping  his  right  hand, 
and  he  remembered  having  dreamed,  how  he  was 
a  stranded  vessel,  which  was  tossed  on  the  waves 
between  sky  and  water,  until  he  finally  felt  the 
anchor  chain  pulling  and  perceived  a  calm,  as  if 
again  bound  to  firm  earth. 

Without  looking  up  he  pressed  the  firm  hand 
to  feel  the  attachment  with  a  living  being,  and 
he  Imagined  that  he  observed,  how  powers  were 
transferred  to  him  through  the  frailer  nerve  cur- 
rents fastening  onto  the  stronger. 

"  How  Is  It  with  you?  "  he  heard  the  preacher's 
voice  above  his  head. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  291 

"  If  thou  wert  a  woman  instead,  I  should  live 
again,  for  woman  is  man's  root  in  the  earth," 
answered  the  sick  man,  using  thou  for  the  first 
time  to  his  old  comrade. 

"  Thank  fortune,  that  you  have  lost  the  rot- 
ten root !  " 

"  Without  root  we  cannot  grow  and 
bloom." 

"  But  with  such  a  woman,  Borg !  " 

"  Such  a  one?  Do  you  know  who  she  was? 
I  have  never  found  out." 

"  Yes,  then  you  only  need  to  know,  that  she 
was  such  a  one,  that  a  man  never  marries.  But 
how  she  is  engaged  anyhow  .  .  ." 

"To  him?" 

"  To  him !     It  was  in  yesterday's   paper." 

After  a  moment's  silence  the  preacher  would 
arise  and  go,  but  the  sick  man  held  him  fast. 

"  Tell  me  a  fairy  tale,"  said  he  in  a  childish, 
touching  voice. 

"Hm!     A  fairy  tale?" 

"  Yes,  a  fairy  tale !  About  sprites,  for  ex- 
ample.    Do  this,  I  beg  of  you !  " 

The  preacher  sat  down  again,  and  when  he 
saw  that  the  sick  man  was  in  earnest,  he  let  him 
have  his  way  and  narrated. 

The  commissioner  listened  with  the  greatest 
attention,  but  when  the  preacher,  faithful  to  his 
habit,  would  give  some  moral  erudition,  he  was 


292  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

interrupted  by  the  sick  man,  who  begged  him  to 
keep  to  the  text. 

"  It  is  so  good  to  hear  old  tales,"  said  he;  "  it 
is  like  rest  and  to  sink  back  into  best  memories 
of  the  time,  when  one  was  a  little  animal  and 
loved  the  useless,  the  nonsensical,  the  meaning- 
less.    Repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer  for  me  now!" 

*'  You  don't  believe  in  the  Lord's  Prayer?  " 

"  No,  not  more  than  in  the  fairy  tales :  but  It 
will  do  just  as  much  good  anyhow  and  when 
death  approaches  and  one  is  going  back  again, 
one  loves  the  old  and  becomes  conservative.  Re- 
peat the  Lord's  Prayer.  You  shall  have  what  I 
leave  and  your  note  back,  if  you  repeat  it." 

The  preacher  hesitated  a  moment.  Then  he 
began  to  read. 

The  sick  man  at  first  listened  quietly,  afterwards 
his  lips  follov/ed  the  sound  in  motion  and  finally 
spoke  aloud  and  with  a  prayerful  tone. 

When  they  had  finished,  the  colporteur  said: 

"  It  is  good  to  pray,  I  believe !  " 

"  It  is  like  medicine.  The  words,  the  old 
words,  awake  memories  and  give  (powers,  the 
same  powers  as  they  formerly  gave  to  the  power- 
less, who  sought  God  outside  himself.  Do  you 
know  what  God  is?  It  is  Archimedes  wishing 
for  a  fixed  point  outside,  by  the  support  of  which 
he  could  lift  the  earth.  It  is  the  imagined  mag- 
net in  the  earth,  without  which  the  movement  of 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  293 

the  needle  would  be  unexplalnable.  It  is  that 
ether,  which  must  be  invented  so  that  the  vacant 
space  can  be  filled.  It  is  the  molecule,  without 
which  the  laws  of  chemistry  would  be  miracles. 
Give  me  a  little  more  hypotheses  before  anything 
else  the  fixed  point  outside  myself,  for  I  am  en- 
tirely loose." 

"  Do  you  wish  me  to  speak  of  Jesus?  "  asked 
the  preacher,  who  believed  that  the  sick  man  was 
irrational. 

"No,  not  of  Jesus!  It  is  either  a  tale  or  a 
Eypothesis.  It  is  a  device  of  revengeful  slaves 
and  evil  women;  It  is  the  God  of  the  mollusks 
opposed  to  the  vertebrates  .  .  .  but  wait,  am  I  not 
myself  a  moUusk.  Speak  of  Jesus!  Tell  of 
how  he  accompanied  custom  house  men  and  dis- 
solute women,  as  I  have  been  obliged  to  do. 
Speak  of  how  the  spiritually  poor  shall  own 
heaven,  because  they  had  no  power  on  earth;  and 
how  he  taught  artisans  to  waste  the  time  and,  beg- 
gars, sluggards,  prodigal  sons,  who  owned  noth- 
ing, to  share  with  the  industrious,  who  owned 
something." 

"  No.  You  blasphemer,  I  am  not  sitting  here 
as  a  fool  for  you!  "  Interrupted  the  preacher  and 
arose  in  earnest. 

"  Do  not  go,  do  not  go ! "  cried  the  sick  man. 
"  Hold  my  hand  and  let  me  hear  your  voice. 
Speak  what  you  please!     Read!     Read  In  the 


294  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

almanac  or  the  Bible,  it  is  immaterial  to  me. 
Horror  vacui,  fear  of  the  empty  nothing  must 
away!  " 

"  See  thou,  that  thou  hast  a  fear  of  death?  " 
"  Surely  I  have  that  just  as  every  living  thing, 
which  without  the  fear  of  death  never  would  have 
lived,  but  the  doom,  you  see,  I  do  not  fear,  for 
the  work  judges  the  master,  and  I  have  not  cre- 
ated myself." 

The  colporteur  had  gone ! 

It  was  the  day  before  Christmas  eve,  when  he 
after  a  stormy  night,  during  which  he  believed 
he  had  heard  cannon  shots  and  cries  of  human 
beings,  went  out  to  walk  on  the  newly  fallen  snow. 
The  heavens  were  blue  black  as  an  iron  sheet,  and 
the  waves  were  heaving  against  the  strand 
while  the  whistling  buoy  cried  in  a  single  uninter- 
rupted howl,  as  if  it  called  for  help. 

And  now  he  saw  out  on  the  sea  to  the  southeast 
a  big,  black  steamer,  with  cinnabar  red  bottom 
shining  as  a  torn  and  bloody  breast.  The  funnel 
with  its  white  ring  lay  broken  on  one  side,  and  in 
the  masts  and  yards  dark  figures  were  hanging, 
twisted  as  angleworms  on  hooks. 

From  a  crack  midships  could  be  seen  how  the 
waves  tore  out  chests,  parcels,  bales,  boxes  and 
sunk  the  heaviest,  but  carried  the  lighter  ones  to 
shore. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  295 

With  an  indifference  for  the  fate  of  the  ship- 
wrecked, such  as  that  one  must  feel,  who  regards 
it  luclcy  to  die,  he  went  forwards  on  the  strand 
and  came  out  on  the  point,  where  the  pile  of  stones 
and  the  cross  stood.  There  the  waves  foamed 
more  furiously  than  elsewhere,  and  on  the  green 
water  he  saw  scattered  objects  of  strange  shape 
and  color,  over  which  the  mews  circled  with  spite- 
ful cries,  as  though  they  had  been  deceived  in 
their  greedy  waiting  for  prey. 

After  be  had  regarded  the  curious  objects, 
which  came  nearer,  he  saw  that  they  resembled 
very  small  children,  very  finely  dressed.  Some 
had  blond  bangs,  others  black,  their  cheeks  were 
rose  and  white,  and  their  big,  open  blue  eyes, 
glanced  up  to  the  black  sky,  immovable  and  with- 
out winking.  But  when  they  came  nearer  the 
strand,  he  observed,  that  when  they  swung  on  the 
wave,  the  eyes  of  some  of  them  moved,  as  if  they 
signaled  to  him,  that  he  should  rescue  them.  And 
on  the  next  wave  five  were  thrown  upon  the 
strand. 

He  had  his  desire  so  fixed  to  own  a  child  and 
so  rooted  in  his  soft  brain,  that  he  was  not  led  to 
the  thought,  that  they  were  dolls,  which  the  de- 
layed and  stranded  vessel  had  brought  for  the 
Christmas  season,  and  he  collected  his  arms  full 
of  the  small  orphan  children,  whom  the  sea,  the 
great  mother,  gave  him.     And  with  his  wet  pro- 


296  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

tegees  pressed  to  his  breast  he  hurried  back  to  the 
cottage  to  dry  them.  But  he  had  nothing  to  make 
a  fire  with,  for  the  people  had  said  they  had  no 
wood  to  sell.  He  himself  did  not  feel  the  cold, 
but  his  little  Christmas  company  should  have  it 
warm,  and  therefore  he  broke  a  book  shelf  to 
pieces,  and  made  a  flaming  fire  in  the  big  fireplace, 
pulled  out  the  sofa  and  placed  the  five  little  ones 
in  a  row  before  the  fire.  After  he  comprehended 
that  they  could  not  dry  without  being  undressed, 
he  began  to  take  off  their  clothes,  but  when  he 
saw  that  they  were  all  girls,  he  left  their  small 
chemises  on. 

Now  he  washed  their  feet  and  hands  with  his 
sponge,  and  afterwards  combed  their  hair,  dressed 
them  and  laid  them  to  sleep. 

It  was  as  though  he  had  company  in  the  cottage, 
and  he  walked  on  tiptoe  not  to  wake  them. 

He  had  found  something  to  live  for,  something 
to  cherish,  to  give  his  sympathy  to,  and  when  he 
regarded  the  small  sleepers  a  moment  and  saw 
that  they  lay  with  open  eyes,  he  thought  that  the 
light  pained  them,  therefore  he  let  the  window 
shades  down. 

When  it  became  dusk  In  the  room,  there  came 
over  him  a  heavy  desire  to  sleep,  which  was  caused 
from  hunger,  although  he  could  not  now  place  the 
cause  of  the  sensation  In  the  right  place  and  thus 
did  not  know,  when  he  was  hungry  or  thirsty. 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  297; 

However,  as  the  sofa  was  occupied  by  the  little 
ones,  he  laid  down  on  the  floor  and  slept. 

When  he  awoke,  it  was  dark  in  the  room,  but 
the  door  was  open,  and  a  woman  stood  with  a 
lighted  lantern  on  the  threshold. 

"  Heavenly  father,  he  is  lying  on  the  floor," 
Oman's  maid  was  heard  to  break  out.  "  But, 
dear  sir,  don't  you  know  It  Is  Christmas  eve  to- 
day?" 

He  had  slept  a  day  and  a  night  and  into  the 
next  day. 

Unconsciously  he  arose,  missing  something,  for 
the  custom  house  men  had  been  down  and  con- 
fiscated the  strand  goods,  but  he  could  not  remem- 
ber what  he  missed.  He  felt  only  a  dreadful 
emptiness  as  though  under  a  great  sorrow. 

"  Now  he  shall  come  up  to  Oman's  and  eat  the 
■Christmas  rice  pap,  for  one  is  still  a  Christian  be- 
ing on  Christmas  eve.  Oh,  heavenly  father,  such 
misery!  " 

And  the  girl  began  to  cry. 

"  To  see  a  human  being  so  wrecked.  Is  enough 
to  make  one  shed  tears  of  blood!  Come  now! 
'Come  now !  " 

The  half  Insane  man  made  only  a  sign  that  he 
would  come,  if  she  would  go  first. 

When  she  had  gone,  he  tarried  a  moment  in 
the  cottage,  took  the  lantern  she  had  left  and  went 
to  the  looking  glass.     When  he  saw  his  face, 


298  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

which  resembled  a  savage's,  his  understanding 
seemed  to  light  up,  and  his  will  expand  for  a  last 
effort. 

Leaving  the  lantern,  he  went  out. 

The  wind  had  turned  west  and  slackened  some- 
what, the  air  was  clear,  and  the  stars  of  heaven 
sparkled.  Guided  by  the  lights  from  the  cottages 
he  went  down  to  the  harbor,  sneaked  into  a  boat 
house  and  took  out  sails  to  a  boat. 

After  he  had  hoisted  the  sail,  he  threw  the 
painter  loose,  took  the  tiller  and  kept  for  aft-wind 
straight  out  to  sea. 

He  made  a  tack  to  look  once  more  on  the  little 
fragment  of  the  earth,  where  he  had  last  suffered, 
and  when  he  saw  a  three  branched  candle  In  the 
custom  house  window,  where  the  murderer  cele- 
brated the  birthday  of  Jesus,  the  forgiver,  the  idol 
of  all  criminals  and  wretches,  who  licensed  every- 
thing wicked  that  the  civil  law  punished,  he  turned 
back  and  spat,  pulled  the  sheet  and  made  full  sail. 
With  his  back  towards  land  he  steered  out  under 
the  great  starry  map  and  took  bearings  from  a 
star  of  the  second  magnitude  between  the  Lyre  and 
Corona  in  the  east.  It  seemed  to  him  that  it  shone 
brighter  than  any  other,  and  when  he  searched  in 
memory,  there  came  a  glimpse  of  something  about 
the  Christmas  star,  the  guiding  star  to  Bethlehem, 
where  three  dethroned  kings  pilgrimaged  as  fallen 


ON  THE  SEABOARD  299 

great  ones  to  worship  their  own  insignificance  in 
the  smallest  child  of  human  being  and  which  after- 
wards became  the  declared  god  of  all  little  ones. 
No,  it  could  not  be  that  star,  for  as  a  punishment 
to  the  Christian  wizards  for  having  spread  dark- 
ness over  the  earth,  not  a  single  dot  of  light  on  the 
arch  of  heaven  bears  the  name  of  any  one  of  them, 
and  therefore  they  celebrated  the  darkest  time  of 
the  year  —  so  sublimely  ridiculous !  —  to  light  wax 
tapers !  Now  as  his  memory  cleared  up  —  it  was 
the  star  Beta  m  Hercules.  Hercules,  Hella's 
moral  ideal,  the  god  of  vigor  and  prudence,  who 
killed  the  lernean  hydra  with  Its  hundred  heads, 
who  cleaned  Augias'  stable,  captured  Diomedes' 
bullocks  which  devoured  human  beings,  who 
tore  the  girdle  from  the  Amazon  queen,  fetched 
Cererbus  up  from  Hades,  to  finally  fall  for  a  wom- 
an's stupidity,  who  poisoned  him  from  pure  love, 
after  he  in  lunacy  had  served  the  nymph  Omphale 
for  three  years  .  .  . 

Out  towards  the  one  that  at  least  had  been 
placed  in  heaven,  who  never  let  anyone  strike  him 
or  spit  in  his  face  without  man-like  to  strike  and 
spit  back,  out  towards  the  self-destroyer,  who  could 
only  fall  by  his  own  strong  hand  without  begging 
for  mercy  from  the  chalice,  out  towards  Hercules, 
who  freed  Prometheus,  the  light  giver,  who  was 
himself  the  son  of  a  god  and  a  woman,  and  who 


300  ON  THE  SEABOARD 

was  afterwards  falsified  by  savages  to  be  the  son 
of  a  virgin,  whose  birth  was  greeted  by  milk  drink- 
ing shepherds  and  braying  asses. 

Out  to  the  new  Christmas  star  led  the  way,  out 
over  the  sea,  the  mother  of  all,  from  the  womb  of 
whom  life's  first  spark  was  kindled,  the  inexhausti- 
ble spring  of  fecundity  and  love,  life's  origin  and 
life's  foe. 


THE  END 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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